Twists in the road
by OrbThesela
Summary: AU DP fic, rated M for language. On Draco and Pansy's wedding day, something happens which shakes Draco to the core. Someone from the past rears his head, causing trouble for Draco and his friends. Will Draco's life ever be the same?
1. Chapter 1

**((NB - This story is my creation, but I don't own Harry Potter or any of the characters or terms affiliated with it, no matter how much I would like to. This story is dedicated to Twiist for her constant badgering. The story is AU, Draco is around 24 years old, I haven't addressed the war for a specific reason which will become clear later. In this universe, Draco and Blaise have been friends for a long time, their back-story WILL eventually be addressed in later chapters, the characterisations are based loosely around my roleplay group; HPRPU as are some of the back-story details, I hope you enjoy it as I normally prefer to write Dramione fic and this is a one which is opposite to my preferred shipping so I hope I do it well.))**

**------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ **

**Chapter one**

"_The sky's gonna open  
People gonna pray and crawl  
It's gonna reign down fire,  
It's gonna burn us all…"_

_Christian Kane - LA Song_

_------------------------------------- _

The wedding had gone without a hitch, the proceedings had been lavish but tasteful, the bridesmaids pristinely dressed, the best man, the bride, the groom, everything had been foresaw down to the last detail. The reception had been huge, hundreds of friends and family wishing the happy couple their best as they meeted and greeted, shaking hands and accepting gifts, the speeches had been the usual ones at weddings, the best mans leaving half the guests roaring with laughter at the retelling of anecdotes and jokes of the couples history together, everything had been perfect. Arriving to their new abode, Draco carried Pansy over the threshold, rolling his eyes with a smirk at the ancient and somewhat corny tradition, placing her down on her feet as she gazed around the house, formally the Black Family manor, gifted to Draco by his mother. Pansy turned to Draco, a smile faded from her lips and she wrapped her arms around his neck, leaning in she whispered softly in his ear, her cool breath raising the hairs on his skin. "I'm leaving you…."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The rain had started pouring in the early evening and as the night had begun to draw in, it was coming down in never-ending sheets. Stood at the oaken front of the Salisbury located mansion, Draco pounded on the door, his hair which had been neat and slicked back now fell in his eyes and stuck to his forehead from the rain. The door opened and Draco stormed past the house elf who looked up at him with a mix of fear and dismay, shutting the door and chasing after the young man in his early twenties till Draco slammed opened the parlour door, glaring with a look of utter malevolence. "Where is she?"

Blaise Zabini had been sat in the armchair by the fire when the door had burst open, not entirely surprised to see his best friend stood in the doorway, scathing at him, Blaise stood up and sighed, he walked over to the door, the house elf, chewing the ends of his fingers, Blaise handed down to him the young baby he had been holding in his arms, instructing him to take him upstairs before looking at Draco with a slight look of regret. "I don't know."

Draco pulled his wand out of his robes and launched forward, he wrapped his free hand around the taller mans throat, pointing his wand at him, the pair walking backwards till the broad shouldered, black mans legs hit the back of the settee, forcing him into a seated position. Draco's eyes narrowed at him as Blaise held his hands up in protest. "Where is she Blaise?"

"I'm telling you mate I don't' know where she is!" Blaise spluttered a bit as Draco's wand dug into his throat. "She doesn't want to be found!"

Draco's grip loosened and he made a scoff of contempt but backed off all the same, allowing Blaise to rub his throat. His wife was upstairs, sleeping off a bad headache, Blaise had been looking after their first born child, a doting father he was, but with their second on the way already, some of their minor spats usually involved her cursing his name, telling him he was a sperm machine and he shouldn't spoil the baby so much. Draco had often chuckled at his friends decision to marry young and start a family, rolling his eyes at the public displays of affection, but all Draco could think about at that moment was trying to find his own new wife. "Blaise, tell me where Pansy is."

Shaking his head, Blaise picked up a decanter of firewhiskey, pouring out two glasses and handing one to Draco. "Draco, mate, I swear to you I do not know where she has gone. If I did, you know I would tell you, that's probably why she didn't tell me in the first place."

Draco knocked back his drink and threw the glass in the fire, shattering the splinters everywhere. He walked over to the fireplace, putting his hands on the mantel, looking down, growling slightly. "I'm going to find her."

"I know you are mate, I know you are……"

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**Six months later**

It had been the talk in every party, every social gathering, even warranting a small paragraph in the gossip column of the daily prophet, Pansy Parkinson, within hours of marrying Draco Malfoy, professional quidditch player had left him and walked out on their marriage and to the best of anyone's knowledge, was still missing.

Draco had done everything within his power to find her, her parents ran a botanical shop in Diagon alley, he had been there numerous times to talk to her parents, his in-laws, Gareth and Rose Parkinson and her older sister Violet, trying to coax whatever information he could out of them but to no avail. The only thing which seemed to be helping Draco get through the monotony of his life was quidditch.

The Wizarding world had come along a great way since 1674, it had been in Draco's seventh year that the National Quidditch League had allowed the formations of the under divisions, there were plenty of open spaces in rural England that quidditch enthusiasts had purchased to play games with their own amateur teams, the setting up of the divisions had been an obvious choice to make and a welcome one, especially as it would turn out, for Draco.

After school had ended, being told it was not expected of him to continue living off his family's wealth, he would have to have some viable source of income. Quidditch had been an obvious choice, although by almost everyone except Draco's admission, he had never been much cop on the pitch, at least in Hogwarts, but there he had always been trying so hard to get one up on Potter he was distracted. He could fly fine, pestering his father for flying lessons and a broom when he was young had seen to that, although he had to all too often sneak out of the house at night to practise flying alone. When he was ten years old and showing off, his grip had slipped and he had tumbled from the broom, landing on the rockery in the grounds of his parents house, although it was more of a bouldery in definition. This particular incident had set his mothers nerves on edge and his father would usually do most things to appease her if it would avoid her sniffling in the parlour for hours, the whole incident had led to Draco's flying practise being hindered, reducing him to only being able to fly at home under strict supervision. Even when he became of age, it had taken some persuasion and in the end, a firm talking from his father to get his mother to loosen her ruling, even then she had sat and sulked in her sitting room for most of the afternoon.

With the set backs aside, he had tried his hardest to make it into a pro team, however he had soon learned his hardest lesson, that money couldn't buy him everything he wanted. The pro teams weren't interested, he wasn't good enough, not even for the reserves, he had tried the second division league, not even they would touch him, in his try-outs for the two teams which had said they would give him a chance, he had blown it humongously, first by taking 4 hours to even spot the snitch on an empty pitch on a clear day, then on his try-out for the second team, being so determined to catch the snitch he hadn't been watching where he was going and crashed straight into the stands. When he had woken up three hours later to the howling faces of the teams coach he had stormed out in anger, not looking back and cursing under his breath the entire way.

Where Draco HAD finally made it was in a third division league team, having successfully moved up from the Sunday league they were keen to find new blood, especially since their seeker had gone missing during his victory lap of their last match and failed to materialise. It was off-season so there had been lots of people turn up, but Draco had given the best performance of his life, impressing the coach to the extent that they had had him signing contracts that afternoon.

Draco found the wage insultingly low, but that didn't matter much, he was playing quidditch and for a real team. The Thornaby Thrushes weren't a great team, but they would do. Draco was happy playing for them, once a week during the season time, the team were astounded by their own progress. Draco excelled, away from the distractions of trying to outdo the Gryffindor thorn in his side, away from the annoying banter of the inept Hogwarts student commentators, he found his niche. He trained hard, everyday he could with his coach, within two years, they had moved up to the second division, within another two they were in the premiere league, playing against the teams who had refused to even see him when he tried getting into the game. The Montrose Magpies had even had the audacity to try and pry him away from the Thrushes, but nothing could tear him away from the team he had grown to love and they certainly didn't want to lose the player who had allowed them fly through the divisions in less than a decade.

Thanks to all of this, Draco had become regarded as a highly eligible bachelor, not only was he the only heir to the entire Malfoy fortune, which popular rumour had stated was in its hundreds of millions, the truth in fact that it was in the billions, although the elder Malfoy had done an excellent job of hiding large amounts of it all over the wizarding world. Draco had been seen with more than one girl on his arm accompany him to various events over the years, but Pansy had been the constant.

She had always been at his side, all the way through school, when they left Hogwarts, she hadn't laughed at the extremely low position, the only position he had been able obtain in the quidditch leagues, she had supported him. She had smiled and played a dutiful girlfriend, attending the post-match celebrations with him in the early days, without _too_ much complaining, when the refreshments consisted of low-quality fire whiskey and pumpkin pasties, then more willingly attended them with him when the team had more money from the higher leagues and there wasn't a pasty in sight.

So with everything that had seemingly gone so horrendously wrong following his wedding, the one constant in his life HAD to be maintained, he had to play quidditch and he had to play it well. Draco had left his home after sorting through his correspondence, seeing that there was no new word on Pansy, merely a letter from Blaise telling him he would be attending the crucial game he was playing that day and his wife would not be coming with him so they could talk afterwards, rather than assuring him it had made Draco edgy, ever since they had been young boys Blaise had played into the role of pseudo father whenever he thought he needed backing up or a good swift kick up the backside. It was rare that Blaise attended his matches, one of his favourite sayings was that he couldn't see how flying around on a glorified branch for hours was entertaining and often referring to Draco's treasured Lightning Bolt broom as 'his penis extension.'

By the time Draco had left his house his teeth were on edge as well as his nerves, he knew he had to concentrate on the game, it was a league table decider to keep them in the division, vying for place against the Ballycastle Bats since they had suffered an embarrassing defeat against The Pride of Portree two games ago when the seeker had caught the snitch within the first five minutes of the game and they had failed to recover from their loss of points.

It wasn't until he got to the stadium and saw the roaring crowd as he stepped out of the dressing room with his team-mates he was finally able to drown out the white noise inside his head and start playing the game he loved, the game which kept him from going insane.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**Authors notes:**

**Thank you for taking the time to read chapter one, please send me a review I love to hear thoughts, good and bad, I don't appreciate flaming, just constructive crit please, I want to know what I can do to make it better. **

**UPDATE:**

**The story has turned out to be very much a romance/mystery, which I wasn't expecting. This is one of the few chapters which doesn't end on a cliff-hanger. If the story hasn't interested you by the end of this chapter, then I ask you read to at least chapter 3 because that's when the plot starts to pick up.**


	2. Chapter 2

**((NB - This story is my creation, but I don't own Harry Potter or any of the characters or terms affiliated with it, no matter how much I would like to. Please R&R.))**

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**Chapter Two**

"_She tied you to a kitchen chair_

_She broke your throne_

_She cut your hair_

_And from your lips she drew the Hallelujah….."_

_Rufus Wainwright - Hallelujah_

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The crowd roared and cheered, 53 minutes into the game, Draco had caught the golden snitch, he held the fluttering ball aloft, grinning for the whooping fans. He made the mistake of allowing his eyes to fall on the stand where the wives and girlfriends of the players normally sat, the absence of Pansy over the previous months had been a somewhat painful knot in his side, normally his eyes blanketed out that particular stand, but so elated from his victory, he had forgotten, now with a bitter taste in his mouth, he fly down to the ground along with his team-mates towards the changing rooms so he could shed the purple and green strip of the Thrushes.

Draco was not surprised when he had removed his uniform and changed into his everyday robes to find Blaise waiting for him outside the dressing room, He was clapping somewhat sarcastically with a raised eyebrow, Draco rolled his eyes, ready for whatever glib comment that was going to protrude from his friends mouth. "Where was your head today then? I saw you narrowly miss that bludger after the third goal."

Draco shook his head at his friend, motioning for them to start moving to the outside, his comment, rolling off his back, he was used to the criticism which only Blaise ever dared give him since his team had moved up from their formerly extremely low position in the profession quidditch leagues. "Same place its been for the last six months mate and your secular review of my performance is not appreciated."

"Secular?" Blaise chuckled. "Draco, only you my friend could ever consider quidditch so highly. When are you going to give up this nonsense and start doing a real sport?"

"Gobstones is not a real sport."

"Yes it bloody well is, you philistine."

"Just shut up will you." Draco smirked at his friend, their argument about quidditch versus gobstones was almost as old as they were but it always taken in jest. As they started walking down the corridor to the exit, Draco reached into his inside pocket, giving the occasional nod and smile to any person they passed offering congratulations, he fished out his silver hip-flask, unscrewing the cap with one hand, bringing it to his lips only to then shoot Blaise a more than dirty look as he snatched it from his hand.

"Tell me your not still carrying this around?" Blaise replaced the cap and stuffed the flask into his own pocket. "And you can forget threatening to hex me, we're going to the pub, I'll give you it back later."

Draco narrowed his eyes, normally he would have had his wand out already, but he recognised the look on Blaise's face, it was his 'seriously, DROP IT' look, something he had developed since he had to start dealing with the pressures of being a husband and father to now two very young children as well as juggling his own career. It was somewhat reminiscent of a look Draco's father was fond of giving him, but since Blaise had said he would return the item, he let it slide, knowing his friends rarely broke this kind of promise. Beside the fact, it fairly amused Draco somewhat when Blaise would slip into what Draco referred to as 'his father impression' which Blaise was now always quick to point out was no longer an impression as he was indeed a father. It had annoyed Draco when they were a little younger, that Blaise held a near hero-worship view of Lucius Malfoy, but after his mother had pointed out to him one day, that Blaise had not had his own father raise him, having died when he was very young and that Lucius had been the one constant male presence in his life, he should not get jealous of Blaise asking him for advice or his father returning it, so he now shook his head and smiled whenever Blaise started to resemble the eldest Malfoy in personality.

Draco went so far as to hold his silence about the denial of his alcohol as far as aparating to the pub, before giving Blaise a look which told him that he _better _be buying the drinks. Blaise rolled his eyes slightly and went to the bar while Draco grabbed the table, their usual one in the back where it was darker and quiet, where they wouldn't be disturbed. Blaise handed over a bag of galleons at the bar, being handed a bottle of firewhiskey and two glasses he nodded to the barman and went to sit down with Draco. He unscrewed the cap of the whiskey bottle Blaise poured out two large quantities of the drink into the glasses and replaced the cap. He quirked his brow and lifted his own glass, motioning for Draco to join him.

Draco sighed, lifted the glass of amber coloured liquid, placing it to his lips and transferring a small quantity into his mouth and turning his face slightly to the left as he felt the familiar burn run down his throat. He sighed to himself and looked up at Blaise, "Alright mate, you said you wanted to talk."

"Yes I did." Blaise took a drink from his own glass as Draco looked at him expectedly, Blaise had learned a long time ago that patience was not one of Draco's virtues, but he wasn't going to bend to his will on this particular occasion.

Narrowing his eyes slightly, Draco drained the contents of his glass before speaking somewhat harshly to his friend. "Blaise if you don't tell me why you wanted to talk to me I'm going to leave because frankly I can't be arsed with your mind games today."

Raising his eyebrow slightly, Blaise took another sip from his own glass before clearing his throat slightly. "Well I wanted to talk to you for two reasons, the first is less important than the second so I shall get it over with now." Pausing for a moment, he replenished both their drinks from the firewhiskey bottle. "Your mother…"

"I'm leaving right now…" Draco stood up, glaring at Blaise.

"Sit down!" Pointing to the chair, which Draco reluctantly sat in, bother his mother, why was she always interfering? "Your mother, as you have probably forgotten, is having a very important party thrown for her next week. Which your father will be expecting you to attend."

Draco sighed, he had forgotten, his Mothers birthday had never been the number one priority on his social calendar. Picking up his replenished glass, he allowed Blaise to continue speaking, knowing that it must be with the intervention of at least his father which had prompted such a conversation between the two former Slytherins.

"It will also be expected my friend, for you to remain relatively sober the entirety of the evening. Your father…"

"OK, I am _definitely_ leaving…" He rose to his feet again.

Blaise narrowed his eyes slightly and pointed at the chair again. "If you don't sit down I am going to epoximise you to that chair." Draco sat again, cursing his parents silently under his breath. "Your father does _not_ want a repeat performance of your behaviour at the Bulstrode party last month."

"MY behaviour?"

Blaise sighed, "Yes, _your_ behaviour. And I don't care what reasons you had mate, getting blitzed out of your head, repeatedly casting melofors on the servants, then declaring that Millicent and Crabbe were a fine match, whose babies would resemble trolls, is _not_ appropriate behaviour!"

Draco refrained from letting his mouth turn into a small smile as Blaise described some actions which he did not remember. "I did not do that."

"Oh yes you bloody did. I have a perfect memory of that evening Draco, unlike you, it was all we could do to keep that incident out of the papers. We had to go around and obliviate half the guests!" Draco swallowed, he had woken up in his bed the morning after that party with a bad head and a worse temper, but he couldn't recall the events which Blaise described. By 'we' he assumed that must refer to Blaise, his father and his quidditch coach who had also attended the party, from what he _could_ recall. "I had to convince your father that I would have a word with you about your drinking and get you to slow down to save you _that_ conversation with him, but you can't carry on like that at your parents house next week mate, _everyone _is going to be there!"

Draco sighed to himself, he was surprised to learn that Blaise had saved him from having a lecture from his father and fairly grateful, he was unaware it was not the first time Blaise had done such and had more than once taken the blame for something that Draco had done to save him from a lecture from Lucius Malfoy, Blaise knew Lucius would go slightly easier on him than he ever would on Draco. "Fine, fine, I won't drink, I'll _behave_. Now if your done with the lecture, _Father_, what's the second thing?"

Blaise shook his head and smiled slightly. " Your sarcasm is not appreciated, _son_, consider yourself grounded."

Draco smirked slightly at his friends comment, speaking to him again before taking another drink from his glass. "Fine, fine, I'm grounded, what's the second thing?"

Smirking slightly still, Blaise continued. "The second thing is about our old friend, our old _dear_ roomie, Captain Sneaky himself, is back….." At this, Blaise pulled a handkerchief from his pocket and was forced to wipe the firewhiskey that Draco had spat all over him from his face.

"Sorry mate…" One of the corners of Draco's mouth pulled down into a half frown. If 'ole Captain Sneaky' was back from the backyard of beyond then it could not be considered a good thing for either of them. He went to take another drink of his glass but found Blaise's hand had moved over the top, and forced him to place the glass on the table, probably a good thing considering what Blaise may have to tell him he mused to himself.

"It's quite alright, I should have known." Blaise finished wiping his face and replaced the handkerchief into his pocket. "Believe it or not, he turned up on my doorstep last night. It was a shock, I can tell you."

Draco's eyes widen slightly. "Well… what did he want?"

Blaise sighed, taking a drink from his own glass. "What do you think he wanted? He wants the pages, he wants to finish what he started seven years ago. We knew it was coming one day, I'm just surprised it took him this long to call it in."

Draco shrugged. "What's the problem? Just give him them, we don't need them anymore. I don't know why he wants them." He chuckles a little. "I don't know why we didn't burn them in front of him when we had the chance."

He shook his head with a slight smile. "We didn't do that because at the time we all had our own reasons for wanting it, although his want was probably slightly more magnified than ours." Blaise sighed, taking a long drink from his glass before speaking again. "The problem, my dear simple Draco, is that we don't know where _Pansy's _pages are and he wants ALL the pages."

Draco swallowed again, this time lifting his glass without the interruption of Blaise, draining the contents, he had almost banned the talk of his wife around people, except Blaise, he was allowed to mention her in special circumstances, this qualifying as one of them. "You mean Nott doesn't know?"

"I don't know what?" The two friends turned their heads and looked up, the tall, skinny frame of Theodore Nott loomed over them, his longish and expectedly greasy hair was swept back from his face, he grinned down at both of them. "Did you miss me? _Roomies_?"

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**Authors notes:**

**Thank you for taking the time to read chapter two, please send me a review I love to hear thoughts, good and bad, I don't appreciate flaming, just constructive criticism please, I want to know what I can do to make it better. Don't worry, chapter three will be along soon, hopefully I will be able to explain a little more in that chapter. **

**Just a quick note about the lyrics, they are from songs which inspired the chapters than directly refer to them, although as it continues it will probably become more obvious, I just don't want to give too much away at this point. **


	3. Chapter 3

**((NB - This story is my creation, but I don't own Harry Potter or any of the characters or terms affiliated with it, no matter how much I would like to. Please R&R.))**

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**Chapter Three**

"_Because nobody knows  
That's how I nearly fell  
Trading clothes  
And ringing Pavlov's bell  
History shows -- but rarely shows it well  
Well,  
well,  
well...…"_

_Aimee Mann - Pavlov's Bell _

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Wait, don't tell me, I interrupted a lovers tryst?" Nott pulled a seat out from under the table and sat down without being invited, pulling a hip flask from his inside pocket he took a drink before replacing it and grinning at his two former roommates. "I take it your not pleased to see me?"

Being 'not pleased' to see Theodore Nott was somewhat of a massive understatement for Draco, although Blaise had expected him to show himself up at some point, he wasn't too happy to see him either, especially since the age-old gay jokes seemed to have sprung to the service almost immediately once again. Blaise saw Draco's eyes narrow and his fist start to clench and knew he had better pipe-up before hexes started flying between the two old enemies, a bar room brawl was the last thing Draco's already bruised public reputation needed, despite how much he might want to hex the sneaky fucker into oblivion himself.

"What are you doing here Nott?" Blaise raised his eyebrows. It was better to get the conversation started before the inevitable enmity between the three of them went from the simmering seethe to a boiling all out argument, if Nott would allow him.

"I came to antagonise you two, why else do you think I'd be here?" To this, Blaise sighed, there never had been any winning with Nott and there never would, best he could do was attempt to keep attempting to keep the peace, at least as long as the banter remained fairly mild, playing into the role of middle child fairly well, considering he had no natural siblings and was in fact older than the other two. It had never been secret that Draco and Blaise could not stand Nott and never could, making their minds up about him early on in their Hogwarts career that since he would never go along with their plans, he could not be their friend and had forced not only exclusion but also the isolation on the son of Darius Nott, one of the oldest living Deatheaters.

To any outsider, who may have glanced into the corner at the three men who appeared to be locked in conversation, it may have been a strange sight. Nott, with his almost black hair, slicked back from his face, his stringy frame hidden beneath ill-fitting clothes which were as cheap as they looked, his skin showed the signs of a poor complexion during adolescence, his sharp green eyes often gave piercing looks to those who vexed him.

Draco's pale skin and almost white blonde hair, was fairly long and well conditioned and tied back in a pony tail at the nape of his neck to keep it out of his face when he played quidditch, the decision to grow his hair long had been one taken with much enthusiasm from his mother, his grey eyes were another inheritance from his father. His clothes were slightly loose but well suited to him; they obviously had cost more than a handful of galleons and were very different to those of Notts. Although Blaise often teased him for being 'skinny' and his mother fretted him that he never ate enough, his arms were toned as well as his body, but in turn for Blaise's teasing of his slim frame, he teased Blaise for his well-built one.

Blaise was the most starkly contrasted to the other two, he had no hair, he had gotton into the habit from being fairly young of keeping his head either shaven or a very close crop, Draco insisted it was to prevent his afro growing through again, something which Blaise denied to the death had ever existed in the first place. Unlike the other two, he was broad shouldered, with well muscled arms and legs and a well defined torso, sometimes visible under the snug fitting shirts he wore to his wife's delight and sometimes insistence. His skin was naturally dark, but since he spent much of the good weather outdoors his skin often darkened even more during this time, his eyes were of such a dark brown, they appeared black unless you were up very close.

Even with their physical differences, any fool could see their personalities clashed more often than not, of course since Draco and Blaise were life long friends, they had ganged up more than once on Nott, playing pranks on him and teasing him, not in the jesting way they would with each other but sometimes in a fairly overly malicious way. One of the cruellest and longest running practical jokes which Nott had suffered at the hands of the pair had involved the stealing of a photo album he thought he had hidden better. Along with photos of his mother when she had been alive, were one or two of places he had been taken as a boy, a couple of he and his father and one which had led to some of the most painful taunts he had ever had to endure. He had gone to a relative's house for a week during the school holidays, the only relatives he had aside from his father whom were living and they lived on a farm. One crisp morning, his third cousin once removed, had teased him and they had jokingly chased the chickens around the hen coup, she had snapped a picture of him catching one of the chickens as it tried to flap out of his grip, since she had been very pretty he had let her and he had kept the photograph as a reminder of a rare pleasant memory. It hadn't been until the 'rich boys,' as he called them, had gotten hold of it, did he realise the unnatural act it could be viewed as if you looked at it from a certain way. He had been Nott the chicken fucker for three solid years after that, he had found feathers tarred to his bed, he had been sent raw and live chickens through the owl post on various occasions, one of the first years had accidentally coined a rhyme which on occasion, Blaise and Draco took to singing in unison in the common room, Nott had never set foot within 200 yards of his cousins farm again, mores the pity as it had been one place he had actually been allowed to have a little fun. But even with that in consideration, Nott had often given as good as he had got, he hadn't earned the nickname 'Captain Sneaky' by accident. As they sat in the rickety wooden chairs in the corner of the pub, Draco and Blaise had no idea to the kind of extent Nott would go to, to pay back the two for their childhood taunting and by the time they had found out, it was too late.

Nott looked away from Blaise and turned his attention to Draco, Blaise had always tried to be the peacekeeper, he had always stepped in when things had gone too far and fighting had broken out, Nott didn't want the peace keeping tonight, he wanted to wind the brass key in Draco's side and watch him get slowly, more and more irked by his verbal mocking, after all Draco's private life had been the subject of much gossip in the social circles of wizarding England, although most people chose not to bring it up when he was actually in the room.

"So Malfoy…" Nott sneered at the pale, blonde haired half of his two ex roommates. "I heard that the Queen Bee finally came to her senses and left the hive. What happened? Did she finally find someone to pollinate her?"

Blaise did not bother to lean over the table and grab Draco's wrist to intercept the punch which hit Nott square on the jaw, he was quite glad to see the cocky bugger get the smirk knocked off his face. He sat back quietly in his chair, not even wincing as Draco launched into what was a small tirade considering some of the blow outs he had been witness to over the years. "Fuck you Nott! And you can stop fucking referring to Pansy as that while your at it. You think you're bloody clever? Waltzing in here with your cheap shots and cheaper haircut? Why don't you just tell us why you're here then go back to the rock you crawled out under of?"

Nott rose his left hand and held it to the side of his face almost as soon as the resounded 'Thwack!' sound had come from Draco's clenched fist connected with his jaw, it ached straight away and he worried for a spilt second that the bone had broken although after the first few throbs had died down he realised it wasn't. If looks could kill, his certainly said 'Avada Kedavra' he had been prepared for a not-so-eloquent rant from the dragon, he had not been so, for a fist slamming into the side of his face, that had been a mistake he shouldn't have made in the first place in underestimating the shortness of Draco's temper. He guessed the pollination comment had gone a step too far.

He growled slightly, a sound uncannily developed unconsciously by almost all boy who lived in the Slytherin house over the years, and he stood to his feet. "I came here to remind you two; that you both have something I want and I _will_ have, I was going to be lenient and give you two weeks to get things together, but since you've made it all to apparent that you don't favour my company, I'll make it five days instead."

Draco narrowed his eyes even further. "Don't be so sodding ridiculas Nott, you know that we don't have the third piece and you know that we don't know where she is." He picked up his glass, necking the contents, he was so angry, but glad that Blaise had chosen not to intervene when he had hit Nott or he had the feeling he might have hit Blaise as well in temper.

"That _Malfoy_, is not my problem." He stuffed his hand in his back pocket and pulled out a rolled up magazine which he threw onto the table, it rolling out a little flatter but still half curled as its spine hit the wooden top of the table. "A parting gift…." Sneering again at the pair, he turned on his heels and stalked out of the pub, muttering things under his breath the whole way.

Draco glanced down at the glossy front of the magazine, the unmistakable font spelled out the words; 'The Quibbler' at the top in white letters, the main cover of the magazine being a pale blue colour with, to Draco's annoyance and Blaise's dismay, knowing that it was only going to make him more angry, a large photograph of Draco on the cover, probably a stock publicity shot from the Thrushes PR office., along with the large printed letters of the magazines main article: 'Draco Malfoy - The Truth about his involvement with underground troll breeding.' Blaise winced as Draco swore loudly, apparently, they hadn't obliviated enough people at the Bulstrode Party….

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**Authors notes:**

**Thank you for taking the time to read chapter three, please send me a review I love to hear thoughts, good and bad, I don't appreciate flaming, just constructive criticism please, I want to know what I can do to make it better. **

**I know I promised more explanation in chapter three, but I had an epiphany about 3 paragraphs into this chapter and I think I can get this done in about 11 chapters more. It sounds a lot I know but it suddenly came to me how I was going to get from where I was to where I wanted to be. Chapter four will be along very soon, I'm going to say right now I don't know if the next part will be one chapter or three, I am trying to keep each chapter to around 2000 words so it's not too much in one go so I am going to cross my fingers and hope I can coherently convey the next bit of the story without going off on too much of a tangent. **

**The next chapter will be very important though so please keep reading and thank you very much to those who have been reading along. At this point I would really like to thank Sugar, Mira and Lou for reading the chapters as I've been going along and their encouragement. It really helped guys. Also namelessxfreak****and MalindaBeatle, thanks for leaving reviews, you rock.**

**I would also like to thank anyone who read all this waffle. Go you…. claps I have had far too much caffeine and it's left me unable to stop writing all of this. **

**Once again please leave a review if you've read this far, I'm getting the chapters out fairly quickly but I love to hear what people think. **

**MWAHS to those who know who they are!**


	4. Chapter 4

**((NB - This story is my creation, but I don't own Harry Potter or any of the characters or terms affiliated with it, no matter how much I would like to. Please R&R.))**

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**Chapter four**

"_And she's taller than most  
And she's looking at me  
I can see her eyes looking from a page in a magazine  
Oh she makes me feel like I could be a tower  
A big strong tower  
She got the power to be  
The power to give  
The power to see..."_

_KT Tunstall - Suddenly I see_

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After angrily reading the article in _The Quibbler_, Draco had left Blaise's company in a much more foul mood than he had been when they had began drinking at the pub. Blaise had taken the magazine and scan read the article, recognising certain twists on the truth within the words, he knew that someone had reported the incident to the press, he was surprised that it had been _The Quibbler _who ran the article, the relief, he reminded Draco, was that very few people would bother to take it seriously. Never the less, Draco had been more than a little exasperated by the whole affair.

Blaise had told Draco to go home and cool off, to relax for the night while Blaise dealt with the legal stuff, assuring him the first thing he'd do would be to have an injunction placed to stop that magazine from using the Thrushes publicity shots unless it was connected with a genuinely commissioned interview, the second thing he would do would be to make sure that there was a light hearted comment about the article in the next match programme for the Thrushes, saying in not so many words that only crazy people believed anything that _The Quibbler _published, thus discrediting the article, hopefully into obscurity. Draco was glad that Blaise was there to keep a level head in times like this, truth be told he didn't know he would have handled the situation if he had not been there to sort out the legalities.

Blaise had aparated with him to make sure that he had returned home and not anywhere else where he could land himself in trouble. Blaise assured him, he would handle the damage control and only resort to contacting his father about it under dire circumstances. He doubted his father would ever come across a copy of The Quibbler but he was still slightly worried when Blaise said he would be best to not inform his father about it unless the circumstances were unavoidable then if he should find out anyway to pass it off as a joke, as long as it was continued to be thought of as light hearted, no one would think to read between the lines.

When Blaise left him, Draco stormed into his home; the house elf trembled a little with fear as she observed her master charge through the hall until he reached the one room he could ever relax in. It had been the one room which had not been redecorated since the ownership had been passed to him, save for a few minor additions.

It was his Grandfather Cygnus Black's own library-come-office which Draco felt most at home in the house, possibly because of its clear antiquity the moment anyone stepped across the threshold, it reminded him slightly of his fathers office at the Malfoy manor, however, Lucius, like his father Abraxas had kept the office for strict business uses only, Draco had only ever been permitted in the room when he was going to receive a lecture on his behaviour. Cygnus had clearly been a little more lenient with his three daughters use of the his office than Lucius had been with his, telling from the slightly worn but very comfortable couch and chair set which was positioned in front of the fire, decorated with cushions which bore the handiwork of two out of the three Black daughters, (Andromeda's had obviously been removed many years beforehand), to a few items shoved on top of books which were neatly stacked on the shelves like hair ribbons and clips, a comb, very old copies of Witch Weekly… As it appeared to Draco, Cygnus had been generous with his time towards his daughters, it had always perplexed him, but he had never asked why therefore he was not named for him. Draco's full name, which thankfully very few people knew was; Draco Orion Abraxas Malfoy, his great uncle on the Black side and his Grandfather on the Malfoy side, a source of slight embarrassment despite its fine pureblood ancestry and thankfully only ever used in its entirety when his mother was _really_ pissed off with him.

One incident he recalled in high clarity was during his family's attendance at another pureblood family's home for one of the social season parties, Narcissa had been informed of something slightly unsavoury Draco had done in school and she had dragged him by the tip of his ear, all the way to the fireplace, keeping a firm grip as she made him floo with her back to the Malfoy Manor and she had stood, hands on hips, giving him lecture even his father would have cringed at. Each time he had tried to interrupt to defend his actions and explain she had told him to hold his tongue and not take that tone with her. It was the first and only time in his life he had ever been relieved to have his father walk in and offer to discipline him in her stead. He had never seen his mother react like that to him before or after, he had been present during one or two of her famous pouting sessions, but that day had been something else entirely.

He had plonked himself in front of the fireplace and almost straight away had pointed his wand at the logs already set up, casting Incendio and lighting them with a fine spark; he knew it would only take a few minutes for the fire to really start blazing. He picked up the magazine again, opening it again he flicked straight to the article, scanning over some of the details he murmured to himself, trying to figure out just _who_ it was who had sold the article to the rag he barely counted as a periodical. It was no good, he could barely recall the events of the night, let alone remember the faces of the party guests. Shaking his head he started flicking through the pages, how _anyone _could read _The Quibbler _was beyond him, just the titles of the articles seemed so stupid; _How to protect your home from the Thagarian Snare Beast_, THAT was surely made up! _My son had to dress me!_, a 'real life' article about a woman whom apparently had lost the use of her limbs after being bitten by a heliopath. (Something he had never heard of, even though he had taken care of magical creatures in school.)

Then there appeared to be a whole collection of regular features; _Topaz speaks the runes_, horoscope rubbish, _Ask Aunty Agatha_, some fruity advice column, _Flowers and Poetry_, some poetry column which seemed incredibly out of place alongside the article on how to identify someone who had been brainwashed by the ministry, although he had to admit, the blonde in the picture he thought was pretty hot. Then there was _Have your say_, the page where reader's letters, containing fanatical opinions were published…. He tutted and threw the magazine onto the coffee table in front of him, it sprawling open on a random page.

He raised his eyebrow, it had opened on the picture of the hot blonde, shrugging slightly he picked up the magazine again; there was something fairly familiar about her. He looked closer, she had incredible chocolate brown eyes, just like Pansy's, maybe that's why he thought she was hot, she kind of looked like Pansy, same eyes, same cheekbones, same…

Draco dropped the magazine, his fingers started to shake and he looked down in his lap at the glossy colour photo, it was Pansy, he hadn't seen his wife's face in six months and now she was staring up at him as if the only thing she did was write, now he glanced over it, fairly angsty poetry for _The Quibbler _of all things!.

He examined the photograph more closely, was _this_, the reason Nott had tossed him the glossy tabloid trash? Was Nott giving him the biggest clue he had ever got in the past one hundred and seventy three days as to the whereabouts of his absent spouse? His eyes widened, Pansy was sat inside a room with a window at her back, but he recognised the view that the camera showed through the window panes. He knew where Pansy was! He stood up quickly, forgoing everything save for his wand which he shoved inside his pocket and moved swiftly to the front door of his property so he could aparated out of there.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Draco had never allowed any feelings like the ones he was currently experiencing come anywhere near as close to the surface as they were now, but he didn't have time to consider them right now, he had a different mission, he knew where Pansy was. That was all that seemed important right at that moment. His fist banged loudly on the wooden door, his impatience becoming increasing. "Blaise! Blaise it's Draco! Open the sodding door! I know where she is!" A few more loud knocks and the door swung open, Draco's fist falling where the wood was to find nothing in its place. He looked up, seeing Blaise looking slightly angry, cradling his youngest, rocking it back and forth as it cried and Blaise spoke to him in a harsh whisper.

"What?" Blaise was practically hissing at him. "We only just got the baby off to sleep, I already sorted out the press stuff, this better be important!"

Draco frowned a little but spoke in a much quieter voice. "Blaise what the hell is going on?"

"Well, I appear to have a very _loud, _raving, madman on my doorstep for one…."

Scowling a little more at Blaise, he stepped over the doorstep into the hallway of the Zabini Mansion. "I _mean_, what the hell is going on….?"

"Yes you already…."

Draco cut him off abruptly. "Why is Pansy living in your guest house?"

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**Authors notes:**

**Thank you for taking the time to read chapter four, please send me a review I love to hear thoughts, good and bad, I don't appreciate flaming, just constructive criticism please, I want to know what I can do to make it better. **

**Now I would like to say…. MUH ha ha ha ha ha! **

**You guys are probably going to _hate_ me when the next chapter comes out….**

**I know this chapter was quite a bit shorter than the others were but I didn't want to go into a lot of detail that didn't need saying and would interrupt the flow. Anyway, as usual, let me know what you think. Thanks for reading. **


	5. Chapter 5

**((NB - This story is my creation, but I don't own Harry Potter or any of the characters or terms affiliated with it, no matter how much I would like to. Please R&R.))**

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**Chapter five**

"_I want a lover I don't have to love  
I want a girl who's too sad to give a fuck  
Where's the kid with the chemicals?  
I thought he said to meet him here but I'm not sure  
I've got the money if you've got the time  
You said it feels good  
I said, 'I'll give a try'…"_

_Bright Eyes - Lover I don't have to love_

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

_**Some time ago…..**_

"Pansy… Will you marry me?"

Pansy looked down at the ring presented to her, a platinum and diamond ring with a large pear shaped alexandrite stone in the centre setting, it was possibly the most exquisite thing she had ever laid her eyes on. She stared down at the band, then lifted her gaze back up to Draco, her mouth hanging open a little, raising her left hand, she brought it across his cheek sharply, slapping him hard. With Draco's face remaining facing off to the left, his eyes closed as he tried to recover from the shock of the reddening handprint on his face, he turned his eyes slightly, looking at Pansy, her scowling at him. "You Bastard! You complete and utter bastard! Did Blaise put you up to this?"

Raising his eyebrow slightly, he turned his head back towards Pansy, involuntarily shifting his head back a few inches. "At the risk of being slapped again… May I ask why the though of marrying me is so… _disagreeable_?"

Still scowling at him, Pansy folded her arms across her chest somewhat huffily. "You know fine well Draco Malfoy. This is about the cruellest thing you've come up with, you twat."

Draco sighed, in his mind, this had not quite panned out this way. "Pansy, I don't know why you seem to think this is some sort of trick, but I promise it isn't. I'm proposing marriage to you."

Her eyes softened at him, although she cursed herself inwardly for doing so, she loosened her arms, resting her hands on her knees. "You're serious? Well… " Her faced hardened a little. "You could have bloody told me!"

"I never expected you would think that I wasn't being serious!" He sighed and snapped the box shut, but as he did so, finding Pansy's hand on top of his and his eyes lifted to meet hers.

"Wait… Ask me again…"

He smiled at her and reopened the box…..

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Draco stepped into the parlour of the Malfoy Manor, it had always been both the receiving area and the family social area of the house, seeing both his parents sat in their usual chairs, his father with a glass of firewhiskey in his hand, his mother with a glass of black vodka in hers. Lucius Malfoy beckoned him inside with a flick of the serpent head of his cane, an object Draco had always viewed with a mild degree of abject fear. He cautiously walked across the room and took a seat in the chair which had always been viewed as his, one opposite both of his parents.

Lucius motioned to a fresh glass of firewhiskey on the table, indicating it had been placed there for Draco. With a slight hesitation he picked it up, noticing the look of disapproval on his mothers face, she had never been happy with him drinking alcohol, she blamed this on seeing his father demolish increasing amounts of the amber coloured liquid over the years from their liquor cabinet. It had never occurred to Narcissa that Draco had been stealing bottles, sometimes along with Blaise, since he had been 15 years old, thus contributing to the large amounts of the spirit which seemingly disappeared without trace over the course of his adolescence.

Still, passing over the critical gaze of his mother, he raised the welcomed glass to his lips and took a drink from the rim. He inclined the arch of his eyebrow slightly as his father cleared his throat, indicating that he wished to begin the conversation which Draco had been brought to the manor to discuss.

"So Draco, this evening you a _date_ with Miss Parkinson, did you not? I trust that you used the occasion to follow through with the plan I discussed with you?." Draco sighed slightly as his father spoke and he nodded. He observed the slightly poignant look on his mothers face as she unconsciously rubbed the ring finger of her right hand, the painfully new absence of her mothers ring from this finger was increasingly apparent to her. "And did she accept?"

"Yes father." He sighed slightly. "Pansy agreed to marry me."

"Excellent! Your mother and I shall begin the preparations…." Lucius gave what he would have considered a beaming smile to his wife, which was little more than an upturned curl of the corners of his mouth. Cissy smiled back at him with an even weakness, she craved more than anything for her son to find a wife he would be happy with and finally produce her some grandchildren before she reached her mid fifties and although she was fond of Pansy, to the point where she loved her like her own daughter, she wondered if her son shared even a fraction of his fondness towards her. Even with her slight desperation, she wanted her son to enter a marriage where he would be happy and although her sons closest friend, an almost honorary Malfoy had assured her many times over the years that Draco simply did not recognise his own feelings, a niggle in the back of her head made her worry….

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Draco gave a quick tap on the oaken front of the Zabini mansion, the house elf opened the door and escorted him inside, he sighed to himself as he was led to the parlour by the families long used servant, Barton. He had no idea why he had come to Blaise's house. He had even less idea why he was still observing the social rules of visitation when it came to his friend. They had shared a dorm room for seven years, not always with ease, they had, had more than their fair share of arguments, but they were practically members of the same family, strange consider their bloodlines had not crossed at all, which was practically impossible for purebloods in this day and age.

He knew that as soon as he told Blaise, that he had proposed to Pansy and she had accepted, he would be happy. It had been a long standing joke between the dark trio, that Blaise had been writing his Best Man's speech for Draco and Pansy's wedding, since they had all been 14 years old, the famous oration,

now into an unknown numbered draft, which had undergone many revisions, detailing the history of Draco and Pansy's relationship, had been the starting point for more than one disagreement. Draco had never actually seen the supposed text, despite years of Blaise's reference to it and he wondered whether it actually existed or if it was just something which only took form inside Blaise's mind, Pansy once describing him during a drunken night in the common room as the worlds only Draco and Pansy enthusiast, despite the constant protests of the couple themselves that they would ever bring anything of the sort into being.

He knew Blaise would eventually coax the reason behind his spurred proposal from him, no matter how he tried to hide it. Even through his smugness, Blaise would question why a man whom had fiercely denied being in love with his girlfriend for so long, would now be proposing to her and he would have to tell him. He would have to explain the seemingly selfish, no, not seemingly, completely selfish reasons he had taken his mother's ring and placed it on the finger of Pansy as a token of proposal.

Exactly one week before, Draco's father had dropped the bombshell, something Draco had never expected would be imposed on him, but had been non the less. He almost wanted to tell his father no, he wanted to know if he was bluffing, but his father could be as stubborn as his mother if the feeling so took him, if he had known the fable, he would have accused the pair as being descendants of King Canute.

HIs father had called him into his office and sat him down in the green leather arm chair which sat opposite the desk, he had calmly informed him as Draco's face had transformed of that from one of confusion, to disbelief, to utter horror. The truth of the matter was, that Draco had fallen far behind with what was expected of him as a good pureblood. His parents had been 25 years old when he was born and Draco was rapidly approaching his 24th birthday, he had to be at least married by the time he was 25, had father impressed upon him.

If Draco did not marry with the intention of producing an heir by the celebration of his 25th year, then his inheritance, would be given to someone else. When his father had spoken these words to him, Draco had hardly been able to make a sound. One could have thought it could have been through occlumency, but in-fact was through mere fatherly intuition, (something rarely practised on the part of the elder Malfoy), that Lucius handed to Draco a much needed and very full glass of firewhiskey which Draco necked down straight away holding it out as his father refilled it for him. He drank his second glass a little more steadily as his father informed him of who would be named as his families heir should he fail to marry in time, he swallowed the liquid down in large gulps, he wasn't sure how his father could do this to him.

After he had consumed a rather large amount of firewhiskey with his father, he had been instructed in the traditions of his family. He was far behind schedule as far as his parents were concerned, he had spent far too much time beating around the bush, playing the role of a bachelor, when instead he should have been wooing a potential fiancé. There was no choice for Draco, it had always been Pansy whom had been there for him and he did care about her.

Now, as he stood in front of his best friend, who wore an expectant look on his face, raising his eyebrow, enquiring silently as to why he was there. He cleared his throat and sighed before finally opening his mouth to speak. "Pans and I are engaged…." Before he was able to finish his sentence he had found Blaise had almost leap from his seat, smiling broadly and laughing, clapping his hands at Draco before he had moved over to him and slapped him on the back, probably a little harder than he intended, congratulating him and starting to speak about making his final draft of his best man's speech and them breaking into the vintage firewhiskey in celebration…..

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Pansy stood alone in her bedroom at her parents' house, in front of the full length mirror which was kept neatly in place next to her wardrobe. She smiled at her reflection and held up her left hand, admiring the ring which now rested on her finger. The pear shaped stone which was in the centre looked different in the light of her room, it appeared to carry a slight bluish tinge to the green, making it look more of a viridian than the emerald appearance it had held earlier in the evening. The ring was so beautiful, she wasn't sure how he could ever have picked it out for her. Perking her lips down to the left and looking up to the right she considered this for a few moments before shrugging and decided Blaise had probably helped him. Blaise had much better taste in jewellery for women than Draco could ever possibly have, Pansy called this Blaise's 'side effect' from growing up mostly under his mothers influence, a woman whom Pansy had always speculated had an entire closet just for her accessories.

She sighed to herself she loved Draco, she was sure of that, but she knew he didn't love her. He had never spoken the words to her, not ever, she suspected that he had some alterieor motive for proposing to her and she planned to find out what. If she had to tie Blaise up in his cellar and hex him half to death she would find the answer. And if Draco did not love her now, well she had until whatever date their parents would agree most suitable to change that…..

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**Authors notes:**

**Thank you for taking the time to read chapter five, please send me a review I love to hear thoughts, good and bad, I don't appreciate flaming, just constructive criticism please.**

**Special shout out to namelessxfreak, thanks for your continuing support, Sugar, it's here and yes I am writing chapter six NOW lol. Lou, please don't shoot me… **

**Now I think I am going to hide under the quilt on my bed until I have written chapter six.**


	6. Chapter 6

**((NB - This story is my creation, but I don't own Harry Potter or any of the characters or terms affiliated with it, no matter how much I would like to. Please R&R.))**

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**Chapter Six  
**

"_Wine, beer and spirits all the time  
Though I have you still she's always on my mind  
The rain falls down I'm soaking through  
I'm an old man inside a young man's suit  
My crocodile shoes are crying too  
For they know how much love I have for you…"_

_Jimmy Nail - Crocodile shoes _

_---------------------------------------------------------------------------_

"Why is Pansy living in your guest house?" Draco repeated himself to a somewhat flabbergasted looking Blaise, who appeared to know not what to do except for continue to rock the baby in his arms in an attempt to lull it back into its prior sleep, although Draco got the feeling that Blaise was doing more harm than good in his attempt to buy time to think. He watched Blaise's Adams-apple move down and up as he swallowed and opened his mouth partially to provide an answer.

"I don't know what you're talking about Draco…"

He narrowed his eyes; there was a difference between Blaise putting on a good act for his wife so she did not know the true nature of his whereabouts when he rolled in in the early hours of the morning and Blaise bullshitting to get his way out of things when he could not think of a decent excuse. The major difference being that one was convincing, the other wasn't, and this was the instance in which it was not convincing. "Blaise, cut the crap. I saw her picture. It was right there in the quibbler let me…" He reached into his back pocket to produce the magazine, only realising that he had left it on the table in his house, he had only brought his wand with him when he had abruptly departed. "Okay, I can't show you but it was her! I know it was her! What's more I know that it was your frigging house in the background of the shot! This is _me _Blaise, you didn't think I wouldn't recognise that the instant I saw it?" Draco paused for a moment, looking slant ways at Blaise. "Wait… that's why you got funny about Nott handing me the quibbler isn't it? You KNEW it wasn't about that article, the quibblers a rag, you've said so yourself, you knew Pansy was in there and I would see it and know it was her."

Trying, unsuccessfully, to rock the baby in his arms back to a calmed state, Blaise furrowed his brow, he knew he was defeated in this situation. He sighed for a moment before, turning, with Draco at his heels and walking swiftly through to the parlour, laying the baby down in the small cot that was inside the room and motioning for the house elf to take charge before taking Draco's shoulder in his hand and leading him back out of the room into the hallway, shutting the parlour door behind him. "Alright, yes, I'll admit it, that was the reason."

Draco's fist flung forward and connected with Blaise's cheek, seeing no form of formal protest from his friend, other than his hand which instantly rose to grip it, he narrowed his eyes at him. "You utter GIT! SIX MONTHS BLAISE! Six bloody months! And YOU have known where she was the ENTIRE time!"

Blaise's jaw ached, Draco's punch had felt like a hammer to the side of his head, although he knew it was not undeserving, he had not expected it to have been so hard, he guessed that Draco had been building his body strength from the last time he had hit him. He rubbed his face slightly and clicked his jaw, "not the _entire _time, no."

"How long then…? How LONG?!"

Blaise cocked his head to the side slightly, hoping to avoid another punch should it come his way. "About four months…."

"FOUR MONTHS?!"

"Alright, alright, let's go into my library and I'll explain…."

Draco did not want to go into Blaise's library, he wanted to go to Blaise's guest house, but he knew that if he left, Blaise would be more than capable of warning Pansy before he got there and then he would be truly stuck. Instead of bolting to the door, he nodded and followed Blaise as they made the short walk to the library, taking a seat as Blaise motioned for it and raising an eyebrow. "This _better _be a good explanation…."

Blaise sighed and picked up a decanter of firewhiskey, pouring himself a drink into a crystal tumbler on his desk before taking a seat near to Draco and proceeding to explain. "She came to me about four months ago. I was surprised, to say the least, to be honest mate, I thought she was gone for good. She told me about leaving you and where she'd been, which was; Malta, apparently for some unknown reason…" He paused, taking a drink of his glass and a drink before continuing. "Anyway, she talked about getting this journalism job and how she didn't want to see you and her thoughts about why you married her in the first place." He sighed. "She was hurt mate. She was really hurt."

"I don't understand Zabini, your not making yourself very clear…"

"Oh would you quit it with the last name crap? That was old when we were 16, let alone now. I know you're pissed off with me and quite rightly so but grow up will you!"

Draco huffed a little, wanting to fold his arms in a sign of malcontent, but merely nodded meekly. "Fine! But why don't you start making sense instead of giving me cryptic responses? Just tell me why she left me and why you didn't tell me she was back!!"

Blaise sighed a little. "You should know why she left you mate. You just couldn't give her what she needed…"

"What she needed? I gave her everything! I'm Draco Fucking Malfoy for Merlin's sake, I'm the heir to the Malfoy fortune! What else could she have possibly needed?"

"She needed love you petulant dingbat! She needed you to love her, but it's not in you, you just can't love someone! I mean, Merlin's beard, how old were you the last time you told your mum you loved her? Three? There's this bloody block instead your tiny, tiny, brain which prevents you from saying the word! Seriously Draco, if it hadn't been for the inheritance, would you have asked her?"

Staying staunchly silent through Blaise's rant, wanting to protest to the statement about his mother, but finding himself unable to as he couldn't actually remember ever telling his mother he loved her and he was slightly disturbed that he had never thought of it until now, flashes coming into his mind of times his mother had sat with his as a child when he was ill or (not that he would ever admit it openly in public to anyone) scared about a nightmare he'd had and she'd kissed his forehead and tucked him into bed, whispering that she loved him, he had never once said it back, not ever. Another thought occurred to him as Blaise continued, how the hell did Blaise know about the inheritance? He had never told him, Blaise had never probed and although he had been relieved on the initial occasion of his informal announcement, he wondered why he had not thought of it. More importantly, had Blaise told Pansy about this? "Blaise, how the hell did you know about the inheritance issue?"

Looking genuinely confused for a moment, Blaise looked at his friend, answering honestly. "Well, your dad told me about it of course. I thought he would have told you, I mean he asked me to come to his office and have a talk with him and he told me about the fact that if you didn't marry you'd be disinherited and he was going to tell you about it."

Draco narrowed his eyes a little, not getting a full grip on the meaning of Blaise's words. "What do you mean? Did you know about all that before me? Why the hell would my father drag you into it anyway? To make sure that I didn't screw it up?" He flung both his hands in the air in sheer frustration. "Well that shows how much faith my father has in me!"

Blaise swallowed a little, he hadn't known Draco had been so unaware of the circumstances surrounding his semi-arranged marriage. Surely Draco's father would have told him? "Draco, mate, it wasn't to make sure you didn't screw it up, I mean he did tell you _right_?"

"Blaise, you have gone cryptic on me again, tell me what?"

"About the fact that if you didn't get married by the time you were 25 you would be disinherited and you would get completely cut from the family will and it would go to someone else."

"Yes, he told me about that, I thought we had established this already. Have you been taking random memory loss potions or something?"

"Not but Draco, he did tell you who it would go to instead didn't he?"

Draco shook his head confused. "No, he didn't. Did he tell you?"

"Well yeah…" Blaise took another drink from his glass and swallowed hard before continuing. "He wanted to name me…."

All his childhood jealousies suddenly came rushing back to him at once, Draco was so angry with Blaise at that moment; he didn't know what to do. "You are kidding me?! YOU?! Why you? What have you done that's so special? This is what you've always wanted isn't it?"

"Don't be so sodding ridiculas Draco, of course not, I even tried talking your father out of it, but he said he wasn't going to leave the Malfoy fortune in the hands of just some distant relative. He wanted me because I'm from a good pure-blood family, I was already wealthy thanks to the plethora of insurance policies on my step-fathers my mother has cashed over the years, I've got a pure-blood wife and we have pure-blood children, that's all your father cares about! And your mum knew that if it happened and you didn't get married by the time you were 25 and were cut from the will that if I got the money that I would hand it over to you anyway! So get off your high bloody horse, it's not like it actually happened, it was a 'what if' calm down!" Draco snarled slightly, he still felt strangely betrayed but Blaise's explanation was satisfactory enough for him to believe that Blaise wasn't out for the Malfoy fortune, which was securely in his trust anyway. "And ANYWAY… You never answered by question, _if _it hadn't been for the inheritance, would you have asked Pansy to marry you?"

"Yes… That's something I'd like to know myself…."

Draco's head snapped around and his jaw dropped, Pansy stood in the doorway of the Zabini Mansion library, her arms folded and her head cocked to the side, waiting for an answer to Blaise's question…

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**Authors notes:**

**Thank you for taking the time to read chapter six, please send me a review I love to hear thoughts, good and bad, I don't appreciate flaming, just constructive criticism please, I want to know what I can do to make it better. **

**I hope this chapter is a little more satisfying than the previous one, I know at least one person who shall remain nameless, said she wanted to hit me for it. **

**Chapter seven will be along very soon and once again, please leave me a review, I want to know what you like, what you don't like, which characters you like best and which bits. Is there any particular quotes which you just love? Please share with me. : ) Thanks for reading.**


	7. Chapter 7

**((NB - This story is my creation, but I don't own Harry Potter or any of the characters or terms affiliated with it, no matter how much I would like to. Please R&R.))**

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**Chapter Seven**

"_Lost in time I can't count the words  
I said when I thought they went unheard  
All of those harsh thoughts so unkind  
'cos I wanted you  
And now I sit here I'm all alone  
So here sits a bloody mess, tears fly home  
A circle of angels, deep in war  
'cos I wanted you  
Weak as I am, no tears for you  
Deep as I am, I'm no ones fool  
Weak as I am…."_

_Skunk Anansie - Weak as I am _

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Draco's jaw hung wide open as he stared at the figure in the doorway. Six months ago she had married and left him all in one day, he had applied the vast majority of his days since looking for her, writing letters to old school friends whom he hadn't spoken to in years, visiting distant relatives of hers, endless trips to her parents shop, nothing had brought him even close to discovering her location. And now she stood, plain as day, straight in front of him, as if she had only gone out to the hairdressers for the afternoon. Draco found he had an overwhelming urge within himself to hit Blaise again for keeping her away from him, but he stood up instead. The blonde hair was a little shocking on her, he liked it, but he preferred her natural colour, the dark shade which was almost a raven black.

Pansy folded her arms together and lent against the doorframe, pursing her lips a little at Draco, she raised an eyebrow then cocked her head to the side. "Well Draco? I'm waiting for an answer. If it hadn't been a question of you losing your inheritance, would you have married me?" Watching Draco stare at her in shock, she wondered what he was thinking, glad that Blaise had warned her prior to this that this might happen. She took a few steps into the library, in the summers of their teenage years, the three of them had sat in there more than once, and Blaise had told her off on more than one occasion for handling the books improperly, as they had been his fathers.

Blaise looked between the husband and wife, the thought of addressing them as such felt strange as this was the first time they had been in the same room together since their wedding day, he could sense the severe tension in the room, he also stood to his feet and cleared his throat a little. "I think maybe I should leave you two alone."

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

_**Four months ago…**_

It had not been a particularly cold day, but now it had reached the evening time and the wind was fierce and bitter, it was whipping round Pansy's face, stinging her cheeks and forcing her hair to fly into the air no matter how she tried to hold it down with her hands. She had reached the end of her tether, she was sick of moving from place to place, visiting distant relatives whom she had hardly met before just to escape from the pressures of being a Malfoy.

Pansy was truly in love with Draco, why else would she have put up with him for so long? It had almost killed her to leave him, it was the hardest decision she had ever had to make, but she knew she had to. There was no way she could stay with him when he wasn't in love with her and there was nothing to motivate him while she was always there for him, to ever realise how much he relied on her. She knew he did, she knew that if she had not been at his side throughout the somewhat embarrassing time he had spent in the minor quidditch leagues then he may not have had the strength to stick it through. Blaise had confirmed her feelings on such on more than one occasion. Normally the two boys had teased each other about various things over the years, but it had always surprised Pansy that he had not mocked Draco for his poor placing in the league tables in the beginning, but then, she knew that Blaise was slightly more supportive than he let on, but it had not stopped him from occasionally giving Draco a grilling when he had attended a match when Draco had performed rather more poorly than he was capable of, even if the Thrushes had won the match.

Now she wasn't sure what else she could do, she only knew she did not want to return to Draco and face whatever anger he might have towards her leaving, she did not want to return to her parent's house, if Draco was looking for her, it wouldn't take much for him to figure she was there. She wanted to go to Blaise, she could rely on Blaise, at least she hoped she could. So now she stood on his doorstep in the bitter wind, knocking on the hard wooden door, waiting for the house elf to open the door.

It took a few moments before the door creaked open and the small creature looked up at her with wide eyes. Even with the change of her hair colour, which she had done the day after her wedding, Barton recognised her instantly. He made an excited squeak and through himself at her legs, wrapping his arms around them and squeezing them tightly. "Miss Pansy! Barton thought you had gone forever! Barton has missed Miss Pansy so much!"

She cringed and tried shaking the thing off of her, it had been a long standing joke among the Zabini household that their servant was defective. Over the years he had had numerous amounts of clothing thrown at him in moments of frustration when he refused to stop hugging someone, but they seemed to roll off his back or not notice them as he never left. Blaise's mother had imparted to her a funny story about Barton, when Blaise was a baby, Barton had treat him as if he was his baby and had locked Blaise's father out of the nursery and refused to let him near the young child for a full week after a very loud argument with Blaise's mother.

Being drawn to the sounds of noise from the door, Blaise exited the his library to see the site of Barton, attached to a leg which was flying up and down, furrowing his brow he took a few steps further out of the room, surprised to see a shock of blonde hair, not quite sure of who it was until he walked briskly to see what the fuss that Barton was making was about when he got a full view of the young woman, about to ask who she was or why Barton was hugging her leg with a distinct refusal to let go he stopped dead in his tracks as she turned her head to face him and his mouth dropped open slightly. "Pansy…?"

Pansy turned her head to see Blaise, a large smile breaking across her face and she kicked her leg, loosening the house elf's grip and sending him flying half way across the hall, she watched as Blaise strode over to her, wrapping his large arms around her and giving her a large tight embrace, which she found it very difficult to breath through. After gasping a little for air she kicked out at his shin until he released his grip, allowing her to take a breath, she frowned at Blaise a little. "You twat, you know I don't hug."

"You've been gone for two months without word! I didn't know where you were, your parents wouldn't tell me in case I told Draco. Oh please tell me that Draco knows your back."

Frowning a little more, knowing that she was not going to get out of this without Blaise giving her a hard time, she sighed, conceding defeat and took his arm, leading him towards his library. "No, he doesn't know I'm back and you can't tell him. I've come to you for help Blaise."

It was Blaise's turn to frown; this was hard to take in right at that moment. On the one hand, he was happy to see Pansy, his mind had mulled over the ditched more than once in the preceding two months, his mother had always talked about the ditches when he was younger. "That statement being ominous in itself, what could you possibly need my help for?"

"Get me a drink and I'll explain…"

With a slight sigh, Blaise escorted Pansy into his library they were in relative silence until he had poured out for himself a firewhiskey and a glass of black vodka for Pansy. He sat opposite her with a raised eyebrow, he had missed her friendship, but he wanted an explanation of her whereabouts, as he suspected, would Draco and he was itching to send a quick owl to him to tell him that Pansy had turned up, at last, but he knew he could not, at least until Pansy had told him what was going on.

"Blaise, you've always been Draco's best friend. More than mine, don't…" She held her hand up in protest to prevent him from interrupting, holding his tongue he motioned for her to continue. "I knew I couldn't talk to you about it because you would run straight to him and tell him, don't deny it." She sighed a little and offered him a small smile. "When I agreed to marry Draco, I knew it would be like I was marrying you too, the pair of you come like a package, it's unavoidable."

Blaise smiled a little, hoping she was half joking. "But Pans, surely that's not the reason you left, I mean come on, why did you marry him if you were only going to walk out on him? Why go through with it?"

"Because I knew, I knew there had to be some ulterior motive for him asking, for Merlin's sake Blaise, he'd never even told me he loved me. I don't even think he does, not even now."

"You do know he's been going crazy looking for you right? All he's done is spend almost everyday trying to find you."

"Not because he loves me."

"Pans he does, he just can't say it. You know what he's like. He's got his father in one ear telling him not to show any weakness, not to show his emotions and his mother in the other rushing him to st.mungos if he sneezes in front of her. He doesn't know what to do, I bet his parents probably fuck like rabbits when he's not around, not that his dad would ever let him see anything like that."

Pansy held her hand over her mouth as Blaise spoke, the thought of the elder Malfoy's doing anything but scowl at each other seemed abhorrent to her, but almost funny at the same time. "Blaise! You can't say stuff like that?"

"Why not? Just because their old, doesn't mean they don't do it."

"Just stop!" She smiled; the mood had definitely been lightened in the room, but leave it to Blaise to bring it all down to sexual innuendo. "Joking aside, I need your help and you owe me this much."

"What do I owe you exactly?"

"Every single time over the years you have taken his side over mine, even if he was completely in the wrong and you knew it, just because you valued him more than me. Every time you took him to that stupid bleeding whore house when I asked you not to…"

"Excuse me, that place is not a whore house, I'll have you know, it is a high class drinking establishment in which the female staff just _happen _to be nude…."

"Whatever. Look, even though you always said you were _my_ best friend too, I knew you never could take my side over his, Well this time I asking you to take my side just once. I need you to find me a place to stay till I can figure things out."

"Pans, I don't know if I can hide you and not tell him I know where you are, if he finds out he'll kill me. With pain and everything." His words seemed a little jokey, but Pansy knew he was not kidding entirely; Draco could very well kill Blaise if he was angry enough.

"Remember that time in sixth year when he and I were arguing and you set him up with that little Ravenclaw slut friend of yours and afterwards you took _her_ side when we got into a fight?"

"Point taken… ok I'll help, what do you need?"

Pansy smiled satisfied with his answer. For once in his life, the hetro-life-partners were not going to be on the same page about things. "I have this little job thing sorted, I just need a place to stay, a _constant _place, I'm tired of moving around all the time."

"Job? Since when do Malfoy's work? Draco's dad would have a shit fit if he found out someone with his family name had taken up employment."

"Oh shut up, both you and Draco have jobs and I'm using an assumed name anyway."

"He plays quidditch and I play gobstones, it's hardly a ministry appointed position."

"Oh come on! You know fine well that when Draco comes to retire they'll be climbing arse over foot to try to get him to head up the Department of Magical Games and Sports, it's never been the same since Bagman left."

"Doesn't mean he'll take it though, he'd probably rather spend his days trying to catch blast ended skrewts. But that is non the less really, we can talk about Draco anytime, you need somewhere to stay? You can stay in my guest house."

Pansy raised an eyebrow at the thought of staying 100 yards walk away from Blaise's back door. "Don't you think that's a bit close to home if you'll pardon the expression?"

"Exactly. He'll never think to look for you right under his nose, the place is empty, we never use it, you can do what you want with it, it's not like I'll be asking you for money or anything. We'll sort out a house elf for you. It'll be perfect."

Pansy's mouth moved down at the right side, she wasn't sure, but he could be right. No doubt Draco had probably turned the place over when she had first left him; he wouldn't think she would come back now. It would be fine. "Alright Blaiseykins, consider me your house guest."

"I have told you before, never call me that!"

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Blaise sit your arse down on that chair, Draco are you going to sit gawping at me all night or are you going to answer my question?"

Draco finally found it within himself to shut his mouth, feeling his tongue gone bone dry from the lack of saliva, he waited a moment before he opened his mouth again, but this time to speak. "No. If it hadn't been for that, I probably wouldn't have asked you then. But I would have eventually." He added the last part quickly but as he spoke it, he knew it was true. He _would_ have asked her eventually. It was just logical.

"That's all I wanted to know……"

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**Authors notes:**

**Thank you for taking the time to read chapter seven please send me a review I love to hear thoughts, good and bad, I don't appreciate flaming, just constructive criticism please, I want to know what I can do to make it better. **

**Ok so major apologises. I know I promised the chapter 'very soon' but it took longer than I thought to write. Mainly because it got very difficult, Pansy's head is a scary place to be in but I am pretty sure chapter 8 is going to be along a lot faster than this one was, also for some reason it wouldn't let me upload it, I've been trying to for a week. **

**Happy reading: )**


	8. Chapter 8

**((NB - This story is my creation, but I don't own Harry Potter or any of the characters or terms affiliated with it, no matter how much I would like to. Please R&R.))**

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**Chapter Eight**

"_Why do you have to go and make things so complicated?  
I see the way you're acting like you're somebody else gets me frustrated  
Life's like this you  
and you fall and you crawl and you break  
and you take what you get and you turn it into  
honesty  
promise me I'm never gonna find you fake it  
no no no…"_

_Avril Lavigne_

----------------------------------------------------------------------

The three of them stood, staring between one another, the look on Pansy's face appeared to be one of smug satisfaction, although both Draco and Blaise could detect the subtle lines in her face which gave away the underlying hurt she was attempting to cover up. Draco wasn't sure what he could say, he had a number of things he wanted to say to her, several small speeches he had played out in his head over the prior months. Blaise was understandably uncomfortable and wanted to bolt from the room as fast as he could, somehow feeling that this was entirely his fault.

The tension in the room was intense and it seemed non of them wanted to break the seemingly deafening silence. For once, Barton's presence in the room came with a slight welcome as his small face appeared around the corner of the doorframe, behind Pansy's legs, giving a small cough before daring to speak. "Mister Blaise, there's a man who wants to see you. Barton told him you were busy but he wouldn't leave. He is waiting in the hall."

Sighing with relief at the welcome interruption, but not quite sure if he could get away with leaving at that present moment without it being important, Blaise peered curiously at the elf. "Did he tell you his name Barton? What does he look like?"

"He would not tell Barton his name, but Barton did not like the way he looked Mister Blaise. He was very scruffy looking Mister Blaise, Barton knows Mister Blaise would not be associating with such a person…."

"Now, now. Is that the way you have your s_ervant _describe all your guests Zabini? Or just the ones that aren't a part of your club for rich spoilt brats." The trio snapped their heads around to meet the grinning face of Theodore Nott stood directly in the doorway behind Pansy, his lank hair hanging partly in front of his eyes. Pansy's face dropped as her head turned and she unconsciously started backing up into the room, towards the direction of Blaise who had now moved forward from his previous position and was stood near to the also now arisen Draco. Nott smirked as he observed Pansy back away from him into the protective glower of the two men, stepping over the threshold of the doorway into the room, ignoring the house elf who was making a silent protest with over exaggerated hand gestures.

"Barton you can leave." Blaise spoke to the house elf without his icey stare being removed from Nott.

"But mister Blaise…"

"LEAVE!" He shifted his gaze slightly only to issue the loud command. "Go upstairs." Nodding the house elf backed out of the room, Nott's smirk only becoming more pronounced as he was aware he had the full upper hand in the situation. Carefully closing the doors of the library before turning his full attention to the other three.

"Well, well, well. If it isn't the dark trio, reunited at last." Taking a few steps towards Pansy he reached out to grab a piece of her hair, not catching it in his fingertips as she shrank away, moving behind Blaise's arm which had shot out to pull her behind him, to a brief dirty look from Draco whose mind would currently be awash with theories of betrayal if it had not been for the presence of Nott. "Love the hair Miss Bee, you look like a _real_ Malfoy now." He turned to smirk at Draco and Blaise. "I know you boys just _adored_ my company this afternoon, but I couldn't resist just _dropping by _and seeing if blondie…" Looking to Pansy for a moment, "Not you Miss Bee," then turning back to Draco. "Original blondie here was smart enough to flick past the cover of my little parting gift. I see by the fun situation you seem to have here that you did, I'm almost impressed, tell me, how _did _it feel to find out that baldie was hiding Miss Bee under your very nose?"

"What the fuck do you want Nott?" Draco had now stepped forward, glowering with barely contained rage at the interrupting sneak whom had it been anyone else would have been almost emphatically welcome the moment the house elf had announced someone was at the door. For now he was very close to losing his temper again and clocking Nott, although he guessed Nott might be prepared for such an action.

Unaffected by the obvious hostility in the room and rather amused by it Nott slunk into the closest chair, slinging his feet over the arm, picking up an almost full decanter of firewhiskey from the coffee table in front of him and pulling out the stopper, sniffing it before replacing the stopper back into the bottle and putting it back down on the table. "You know what I want Malfoy, I want the pages. The pages which are in the possession of the three of you."

Blaise narrowed his eyes at his former roommate, the cheek he had to turn up at his home unannounced, flounce into _his_ library and start making demands of him and his friends, well he would not stand for it. "Look Nott, you might think that we are stupid enough to hand them over to you, but we're not going to."

Draco looked at Blaise, slightly impressed that he had guessed what he himself had wanted to say to Nott but beat him to the punch, so to speak. He looked to Nott himself and nodded in agreement with Blaise. "That's right Nott."

At the blatant defiance Nott stood to his feet, his narrowed eyes almost slits. "Listen you three, you may have spent the last seven years fulfilling your _duties _as the rich elitists you are, but you all know that _I _deserve that formula! _I _was the one who put in all the work to acquire it and _I _was the one who discovered which vault it was that the bumbling nitwit put it in in the first place! You three were only along for the ride."

"No Nott. You needed us. You would never have got in and out without us and we were right to split the formula into four sections." Draco smirked to himself that they were taking charge of the situation in hand and not pandering to Nott, they hand no reason to and he was beginning to realise they had the complete upper hand.

"I'm going to make it very simple for the three of you, I want the rest of the pages by tomorrow evening at six or there will be consequences."

"Whatever Nott, get the fuck out of my house." Blaise pointed at the library door, even Pansy had folded her arms and had tilted her chin upwards, the three of them all now postured with a pure solidarity that showed they stood together, they were not bending to the will of Nott.

Smirking at them now, Nott turned and started to walk out of the library door, still speaking loudly so they could hear him. "Don't take my words lightly. Tomorrow. I'll see myself out." The three waited until the sound of footsteps had disappeared and the front door had opened and then shut before there was a unison sound of breathing outwards and they relaxed a little. Blaise retrieved the decanter of firewhiskey and took a swig straight from the neck of the bottle, before offering it to Pansy who accepted it thankfully, taking her own drink. Draco couldn't be less concerned that Nott had repeatedly shortened his deadline, because it didn't matter, they simply would not be giving Nott what he wanted and that would be the end of it.

"BLAISE!!!" The three snapped their heads round, seeing Tracey, Blaise's wife, in the doorway. "The baby is in the parlour, how long have you left him in there on his own while you and Draco sit in here in and drink?" It took her a few moments to realise that Pansy was there too and her mouth changed from wearing an expression of anger to an 'O' shape as she realised the situation that had ensued, unaware of Nott's prior presence. Tracey of course had been aware that Blaise had moved Pansy into the guest house, she had not objected, Pansy and Tracey were old roommates themselves in Hogwarts and she knew Blaise wouldn't play around with anyone, especially Pansy. She placed her hand on her stomach protectively, even though she had their youngest child was just a few months old, she was already pregnant again, but had not told Blaise yet. Tracey walked across the room and placed her arm around Pansy's shoulders, starting to lead her out the room. "Come on luv, you can help me take the baby upstairs while these two finish off the rest of the firewhiskey." She smiled slightly, turning her head over her shoulder to glance at Blaise as they left the room.

Draco was actually grateful of Tracey's interruption, he had no idea what he was going to say to Pansy, yes he wanted to sort things out with her and get her to join him at the house and finally start to being his wife, but it had just dawned on him how long a day it had been and how suddenly tired he was. It seemed like last week, not that morning, that he had been playing quidditch for The Thrushes.

Blaise turned to Draco with a sigh and placed his hand on his shoulder looking to his best friend. "Look mate, it's late, I don't know about you, but its been a very long day, want to crash in one of the spares and we can figure something out tomorrow?"

Draco nodded, looking up at Blaise. "Thanks mate, it feels like I've been up for a week." Sighing slightly the two boys started to walk out of the room, then offering Blaise a slight smirk. "Nott looked really pissed off didn't he?"

"Oh yeah, reminded me of old times. But, you know we're doing the right thing by keeping that formula out of his hands."

"I completely agree mate. Nott could almost be dangerous with a philosophers stone…."

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**Authors notes:**

**Thank you for taking the time to read chapter eight please send me a review I love to hear thoughts, good and bad, I don't appreciate flaming, just constructive criticism please, I want to know what I can do to make it better. **

**Special shout outs are needed for this chapter, firstly, special thanks to Tabby and Nikki who's portrayals of Tracey are going to be completely responsible for her in this fic. For anyone wondering, Tracey is Tracey Davies, or was at least before she married Blaise lol. **

**Thanks also to nameless freak, the reviews always cheer me up and keep me going. Thanks also to Lou and Sugar (Twiist) for keeping the faith. **

**This chapter ended up being shorter than I originally intended as I've moved some stuff around that's going to be in the next chapter instead. Chapter nine is coming soon so keep an eye out.**


	9. Chapter 9

**((NB - This story is my creation, but I don't own Harry Potter or any of the characters or terms affiliated with it, no matter how much I would like to. Please R&R.))**

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**Chapter Nine**

"_Gee, but it's hard  
When one lowers one's guard to the vultures  
Now, me I regard it  
A torturous hardship that smoulders  
Like a peppermint eaten away  
Will I fight? Will I swagger, or sway?  
Tee hee, milady  
She cries like a baby  
Scold us  
See her tumbling down  
Hail to the monkey  
We're having a funky reunion  
Wasted and sunk  
He can only have Sunday communion  
He's got nicotine stains in his eyes  
He's got nothing to protect but his pride  
Oh smothered a kiss  
Or be drowned in blissful confusion  
See her tumbling down…"_

_The Venus in furs - Tumbling down (Velvet Goldmine soundtrack)_

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Draco awoke the next morning, his head thumped, after being given one of the guest rooms to spend the night in after what had seemed to be the longest day of his life; he had further consumed half a decanter of firewhiskey, straight from the neck of the bottle. Naturally his head was pounding, an all too familiar feeling, his tongue felt thick and fuzzy and there was a crusty feeling patch of skin on his chin where he knew he had more than likely been drooling in his sleep. He had that feeling, he knew it as soon as his brain had registered that he was awake; it was going to be one of those days.

Down the hall, in the east wing of the house, Blaise snorted in a state of half sleep, his dream seemed to have gone from one of devouring a never ending bowl of pasta and cheese sauce which was laying heavy on his stomach to a woodpecker, sat in front of him, tapping his forehead, speaking his name over and over. It must have been a solid five minutes before his eyes pried open and he saw his wife grinning at him, her index finger, tapping his forehead in the same spot at two second intervals. He groaned and rubbed his head, half raising an eyebrow at her, wanting to know why she had woken him up in this manner.

In the Zabini guest house, Pansy sat at the breakfast bar, calmly drinking a cup of tea and scribbling whatever random words came into her head to send to her editor at The Quibbler, not that her editor ever bothered to read what she wrote anyhow. Her head was completely flooded, on the one hand, she _knew_ it had been a terrible idea to take that glossy shot, on the other, she had allowed it anyway. If the truth was hammered out of her, she was a little glad Draco had finally found her, Malta had been dull, but so had staying in the guest house, she had allowed her life to become dull and monotonous, falling into simple routines and patterns which she followed to the letter on almost a daily basis. Her feelings had not changed, she knew she loved Draco, but if he loved her, or had it within him to learn to love her, she still wasn't sure of.

Tracey smirked at her husbands sleepy face, she knew he hated being woken up early, she knew she'd have to tell him about her newly discovered pregnancy soon, but not seemingly that day, she was all to aware he'd end up spending it, babysitting Draco. She whispered quietly to him that both their sons were in their cots in the next room, having had their morning feed, they would be fine till she got back, meaning he would have to get out of bed soon as she wasn't keen on letting the house elf watch them for too long. She poked his side with her index finger, telling him she'd left him a list of shops she was likely to visit that day on the side and that she would to be taking Pansy with her, to this Blaise pulled the quilt covers over his head while Tracey laughed at him, leaving the room.

It was the back of mid-morning and getting closer to dinner time than it had been breakfast by the time that Blaise dragged himself out of bed. He'd showered and dressed and checked on the kids before making his way to Draco's room to see if he was awake, he opened the door and strode into the room, drawing back the curtains and allowing the sunlight to come streaming into the room while grinning at Draco who seemed like he couldn't decide between throwing the pillow in his hand at Blaise or covering his eyes with it while groaning loudly. Blaise shoved the paper which Tracey had left for him in Draco's face, announcing that Tracey _and _Pansy had gone shopping and he could make up his own excuse to 'bump' into them. With that, Blaise told Draco he was going to look after the kids in the parlour and he would see Draco later, and then left the room. It only took Draco five minutes to get up and dressed and start cleaning himself up in the bathroom.

-----------------------------------------------

"Merlin's beard…." Pansy stood in the middle of Diagon Alley with Tracey, it was the first time since before her wedding she had ventured into the street, it hadn't changed all that much, aside from an addition of an tiny odds and sods shop where there used to be a shop which supplied exotic plants but had pushed out of business by her own parents botanical shop in Knockturn Alley, something which her mother had already informed her of some months prior. What surprised Pansy most was the amount of people who were browsing and walking along the cobblestones, it seemed to her unusually busy for that time of the day. "It's a bit bloody busy isn't it?"

Tracey gave her a non-committal shrug and slipped her hand into the crux of her elbow and started to walk her down the street. "Not really, but you've been cooped up for a while dear. Come on, I want to have a poke around Miniature Wizards."

Pansy looked to her friend with a look of slight horror. "Oh no. No, no, no, no, no, no. I am NOT going to look around the damn baby shop Trace! Can't we go to Madam Trepaz? I fancy treating myself to something slinky."

Tracey could not help but grin at her friend as she protested and gave her a smirk. "Fine luv, whatever you want. Madam Trepaz it is."

Breathing a sigh of relief, Pansy smiled as they started to walk down the street towards the shop which she intended to buy herself at least one new dress. "Thanks Trace, I'll get you a new set of summer robes if you want?"

"Oh no thanks dear, I'll never get a chance to wear them."

"Don't be daft, you'll drop the extra baby weight in no time." Pansy gave her a reassuring smile as she pushed open the door to the shop, walking inside, shortly followed by Tracey. She moved straight over to a blue gossamer dress which caught her eye instantly. While fingering the delicate fabric, she turned to smile at her friend. "This would look great on you luv!"

Tracey shook her head with a smile. "Not unless it comes in maternity Pans, but it would look great on you!"

"Maternity!" Pansy scoffed. "You won't need maternity in a little while, you'll be dropping the weight in no.…" she paused for a moment, a realisation dawning on her and she raised an eyebrow. "Oh Tracey. Not again? Is Blaise completely incapable of keeping his dick inside his boxers?"

Tracey started to laugh a little. "He doesn't know yet, it was my own fault, I missed taking my antifertility potion. So just don't tell him yet." Tracey patted her stomach with a smile. "I really hope it's a girl this time."

Pansy rolled her eyes slightly at her friend, she found it amazing that being married to Blaise Zabini; the original Hogwarts manwhore, had turned Tracey Davies; the original Hogwarts tease, into a mother who couldn't stop popping them out. Personally she thought it was too strange for Blaise and Tracey to keep having children when they had already produced an heir on the first go, but each to their own she guessed. Not wishing to be drawn into a conversation about babies she turned her attention back to the gossamer dress and waved over an assistant. "Well, you can tell me whether this one suits me or not luv…."

--------------------

Draco aparated to Diagon Alley as soon as he had managed to shower and freshen up his clothing, from the time it had taken Blaise to wake him up to actually giving Blaise a brief wave goodbye followed by a shout of "Thanks Mate, see you later!" before exiting the door aparating to the street it has only been forty minutes, which was verging on a new record for the fastest time Draco could recover from a hangover. Well, not quite recovered, his head still felt like there was a bludger rattling around inside, but there was very little he could do about it.

He looked over the list of shops that Tracey had been planning to take Pansy to, running through their locations in his head, he figured that he could probably visit each one within a five minute period so find them pretty quickly. But he didn't want to come on too strong to Pansy, he just wanted to show her how much he had missed her. As the thought entered his head, he stopped dead in his tracks; he made a mental note to himself that he could not, ever, ever, tell her that. Unless it was the thing which would make her come back. He scratched the back of his head in confusion, he had no idea what he was going to do, but standing in the middle of the street wasn't going to help anyone. Realising that he hadn't really thought this plan through he headed quickly to the pub, ducking inside before anyone could notice him and ordering a glass of pumpkin juice at the bar.

Sitting in a corner which didn't hold much light, so that no over enthusiastic Thrushes fan trying to get an autograph out of him, Draco sipped the glass of juice, which he was only drinking to re-hydrate himself and hopefully help soothe the remainder of his hangover. Looking over the list of shops he could only think of three or four which the girls _didn't_ plan to visit. He knew he needed an excuse to be in Diagon Alley without appearing like a stalker so he considered what he could buy quickly from a shop that the girls would not be going into. Looking over the paper once more he knew he didn't have many options, but the quidditch supply shop seemed like a good option. With Blaise's aversion to anything quidditch, Tracey never had a need to visit the shop, of course he had just about every decent broom that was currently on the market and the team supplied his uniform and equipment, but maybe he could find _something_ to buy. With a slight sigh he stood from the table, leaving a few galleons on the table to cover the cost of his drink and left the pub.

It took him less than two minutes to walk across the cobblestones to the quidditch supply shop; he pushed opened the door and entered. The second he crossed the threshold of the, thankfully, empty shop, the shops manager, Mr Tattsyrup almost pounced on him. Draco found himself politely declining the offer to be shown the latest broom catalogue, insisting he was just browsing, after ten minutes he managed to get a little space and started to peruse the back wall which was reserved for quidditch memorabilia. He glanced over a few items, most of which didn't seem bothering about, one thing caught his eye which amused him too much to not purchase it. It was a photograph set in a fairly simple frame, of himself, hovering in mid air with the golden snitch in his hand, holding it aloft to a cheering crowd. He could remember the very match which the photograph had been taken, it had been two years prior, a very important league match, it had been one of the best he had ever played. What had amused him so much about the picture was that in the background was a clear view of the stands and in them stood Blaise and Pansy, clearly making fools of themselves by jumping up and down and cheering with such enthusiasm it looked like they were going to fall over the edge. He suppressed a chuckle, he had mapped out in his mind that he would present this to Blaise as proof that he could get enthusiastic about quidditch if he wanted to. He called over Mr Tattsyrup and had him removed the picture from the wall so he could pay for it.

By the time that Draco had paid for the photograph and had it wrapped in plain brown paper and been somehow talked into signing a few Thrushes publicity shots that had been held beneath the counter, then left breathing a heavy sigh of relief as he walked onto the street, he realised that he had been out for over an hour, that was plenty of mooching time, he could afford to start looking for the girls now. He set out onto the street, keeping his head down to avoid random passers, it seemed that luck was on his side however, when he observed Tracey, shortly followed by Pansy, both carrying fairly heavy looking shopping bags, he thanked Merlin silently under his breath and crossed the cobblestones.

"Draco!" Tracey had shouted it loudly before he had managed to take more than a few steps, a shout to which he cringed as half a dozen people turned to stare as it was shouted, something to which Tracey was oblivious. "Draco, I'm _so_ glad you're here. Here!" Draco found himself presented with a set of heavy bags Tracey was holding out for him, which he took, finding that Tracey was a lot stronger than she looked, the weight in the bags surprised him, he looked up to find a smirk on Pansy's face, which he met with his own.

"Well if you girls are done shopping for the day…"

"What gave you that impression? Come Draco!" With a smirk Tracey turned on her heels and started to talk down the street, beckoning for him to follow.

Pansy wasn't sure how she was supposed to feel. On the one hand she felt like she wasn't supposed to be happy that Draco had seemingly intruded onto the girls shopping trip, on the other hand, she actually wanted to see him. Now he had found out that she had simply left because he had not given her what she needed, she found herself wondering if she should cave in and go back to him.

As Draco motioned for her to start walking after Tracey, she gave him a slight nod and let her mind begin to mull over thoughts, even though she could tell by the expression on his face that he really wanted to speak with her. Probably convince her to come to the former Black Family Manor which Draco had re-christened to the Malfoy Kennet Manor, so that there was a distinction between his and his parents homes. Pansy though about each night for the past six months when she had laid in her bed in the guest house, alone, often looking at the empty space beside her and wondering if it was all worth it. If she had motivated Draco into realising that he needed her a lot more than he knew, that maybe one day he could even express his feelings towards her in some sort of verbal capacity. She wondered how Narcissa Malfoy had coped with Draco's father for all those years without an occasional reassurance that he cared for her.

Pansy liked Draco's mother a great deal, she had been surprised at the favour she had been shown, when visiting the house during her and Draco's courtship, she often found herself being dragged into the sitting room, which had been referred to by both Draco and his Father as the Cissy room and been plied with large quantities of black vodka while being told various stories about Draco as a child. Often these sessions in which both women had become fairly merry had resulted in Cissy giving Pansy various pieces of advice for dealing with a Malfoy man. "Always look after his ego dear." She had told Pansy. "It's the most fragile thing about a Malfoy man." These words had been part of the reason which Pansy had never made malevolent comments about Draco's early quidditch career. One thing she had learnt on her own about Malfoy men was that they did not forgive easily either.

Soon Pansy found herself absentmindedly browsing through a collection of fine dresses which were in the next shop which Tracey had led them into. With a smirk on her face, Tracey had selected a handful of things which Pansy knew she did not stand a hog in hells chance of being able to wear, given that she was pregnant, yet again, and slipped into the changing rooms, announcing that she would be trying a few things on and to not leave without her. Draco had given Pansy a somewhat fearful look as it dawned on him that he had somehow become involved in a woman's shopping trip and was now looking at his hands, filled with bags of purchases, trying to find something he could do without standing there, looking like a little boy who was waiting for his mother to try on six pairs of shoes.

She wasn't sure if it was because she took pity on him standing looking so uncomfortable because she was actually sad to see them so seemingly driven apart or because one of the shop assistants was giving him the eye, but Pansy left the dresses she was looking at and called into the dressing room Tracey was standing in, telling her that she would just have to meet them in the pub because she wanted a drink and grabbed Draco's arm, dragging him out of the shop and down the street towards the pub.

Draco was surprised by this action but non the less grateful to be taken away from the tedious act of waiting for Tracey to try on half a dozen outfits which she had no intention of buying. In his mind he marked Blaise as a saint for being able to do such a thing without grumbling. He quite happily allowed himself to be dragged by Pansy all the way to the pub where he bought a bottle of elf wine, along with a couple of glasses and managed to acquire them the most secluded table in the place, in the far corner which was half-way partitioned.

Pansy smiled meekly as Draco poured them out a glass each of the wine which she picked up and drained half the contents of it before placing it back on the table and having it topped up.

"Pans when are you going to come home?"

Pansy starred at Draco, had she not been sitting down, it would have quite likely knocked her out of her socks, she took a moment to gather her thoughts and take a sip of the glass before shrugging her shoulders and answering him. "I don't know. What exactly do you need from me? You've got your inheritance secured."

"I need you because I need you Pansy." He placed his glass down on the table, looking at her sincerely. "I don't think I realised how much I would miss you until you had gone." He started to look at her a little pleadingly. "Don't make sit and gush, you know that's not me."

She mulled over this for a moment, her plan had worked, he _had _missed her, she still didn't know if he loved her, but even if he did, he might not be able to say it. He was right, she did know him and she knew that wasn't him, he just wasn't good at expressing himself like that. She mused for a moment that if she did want a man like that then she should have married Blaise years ago. "I just don't know Draco."

"Alright, how about this, come to manor with me, you don't have to sleep anywhere near me, you can be at the other end of the house and I'll work on things, I swear."

She wondered just how long he had been practising that in his head, it did sound tempting. She gave him a smile and nodded slightly. "I'll think about it."

"What's stopping you Pans?" He hesitated for a moment, then looking round, realising that no one could see them anyway he reached across the table and took her hand. Hoping the uncharacteristic gesture might show her how serious he was.

"I'm worried I'm going to spend my life being Mrs Malfoy and not Pansy."

He chuckled slightly, unable to stop himself. "And you couldn't have told me this before we got married? Pans, you _are_ Mrs Malfoy, but your Pansy too. We're not going to work this out if you keep living in Blaise's back garden."

Pansy smiled at this and gave a small laugh herself. "When did you get all sensible and mature?"

"Since the only person I've had to talk to in the last six months is Blaise; Mr Let's-talk-about-feelings when he's drank a full bottle of firewhiskey." Draco grinned at her and Pansy couldn't help but grin back, then they both started to laugh. It felt good to laugh with her again, it seemed just like old times when they were a little younger, with less responsibilities, before all the pressure of living up to being a 'good pureblood' had made everything complicated. On impulse, Draco lent across the table and placed his lips against Pansy. After a moment's pause, when she realised what was happening, she started to respond and kiss him back. Their lips stayed pressed together for a few minutes before he finally drew back.

Pansy looked into his cool grey eyes, for a moment she bit her lower lip before giving him a smile. "Maybe I will come back to the manor with you."

"Fabulous!"

Both Draco and Pansy snapped their heads round, seeing the grinning face of Tracey who had clasped her hands together and held them at the side of her face, they both couldn't help but smirk at her, having caught them both betraying their normally hard faced exteriors. "Alright, calm down Trace."

"Oh I'll be calm, I promise…"

The smirk on her face, led them to believe she was lying, which of course she was. In fact after a grilling from Tracey and two more bottles of elf wine for Pansy and Draco, they were at the pub till well into the evening. It wasn't until Tracey realised that Blaise wouldn't be able to feed the kids himself did she insist they leave.

They gathered their bags and aparated back to the Zabini Mansion, the house was pretty quiet when they walked through the hallway, they were still laughing together when Tracey pushed open the door to the parlour. Blaise was sat in his armchair, his usual seat he occupied when he sat in the room, Draco knew Blaise wasn't going to stand up and greet them all with a grin and hug. He could tell by the way his eyes were glassed over.

The only noise in the room that sounded were that of the shopping bags, dropping out of the hands of all three of them, Tracey's smile seemed to fade in slow motion as she realised what had happened and Pansy seemed to cling onto Draco so she didn't fall down. Pansy wanted to close her eyes, to look away, but she couldn't seem to draw her gaze away from the scene. Tracey's mouth opened widely, it was as if she was trying to scream, but the words were trapped in her throat.

Draco's eyes were firmly planted on a note, pinned to Blaise's chest in Nott's handwriting:

'_I told you to take me seriously, I'll be in touch…'_

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**Authors notes:**

**Thank you for taking the time to read chapter nine please send me a review I love to hear thoughts, good and bad, I don't appreciate flaming, just constructive criticism please, I want to know what I can do to make it better. **

**So my dear readers, if you've been reading along but not chosen to comment so far, now is definitely the time to do so. This was the hardest chapter to write so far, purely because it upset me so much to actually put it together. I knew this was coming six chapters ago and have been dreading it ever since.**

**This is the longest chapter so far, but I'm not sure if it will be the longest yet. I am making a start on chapter 10, but it might take me a little longer to get out since I'm busy this weekend. **

**I really, really, want to know what people think of the story so far, but especially this chapter as I class it as 'the hump' of the fic. I think it will be pretty smooth sailing from here on in for the rest of it. Fingers crossed.**

**------**

**UPDATE: Apologises to Saving-nemo (Lou) for making her cry….**


	10. Chapter 10

**((NB - This story is my creation, but I don't own Harry Potter or any of the characters or terms affiliated with it, no matter how much I would like to. Please R&R.))**

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**Chapter Ten**

"_Cease to resist, giving my goodbye,_

_Drive my car into the ocean,_

_You'll think I'm dead, but I sail away,_

_On a wave of mutilation…"_

_The Pixies - Wave of Mutilation _

_------------------------------------------------------------------------------_

The pale bluish moonlight shone through the large open bay windows in the guest room which Draco always slept in when he stayed over at the Zabini Mansion. If he had looked out of the window, he would had observed a dim green halo circling round it, but his eyes were firmly fixed on the bedroom door, as if he expected Blaise to walk in at any moment, carrying a bottle of firewhiskey and suggesting they do something utterly stupid while they drank it. But Blaise wasn't going to walk through the door. Blaise wasn't going to be walking anywhere. A cold numbness had coursed through his body since the house had grown quiet and he had finally had time to realise that his best friend was dead.

What had happened after the discovered scene in the parlour was already starting to become a fuzzy blur in his mind, events fusing together, but some things would remain in perfect clarity and he would hold the moving images in his mind for the rest of his life.

Tracey had become hysterical, he'd had to use all his strength to hold her back, between the crying was screaming and shouts of denial coming from her throat in a seemingly never ending haranguing to which Draco was taking the blame for since he was the closet person to her.

Pansy had been silent, even when he had barked at her to summon Ripley, the house elf whom he knew had the sole responsibility for looking after the guest house and send him to fetch help while she went upstairs to see if the children were safe in the nursery, she hadn't spoken a single word.

Barton had, as it had turned out when information had been coxed from him, been told to take the two infants up to the nursery upon Nott's arrival and told to stay there until further notice. When he had been told later of his masters most untimely death, he had tried to throw himself out of the top window as self-punishment for not being there to protect him and was now tied up in the hallway cupboard to prevent him from trying to bake his own head.

To even Draco's own surprise, he doubted he would have been able to get through the evening without the assistance of his father. When told to get help, in a panic and not knowing what else to do, Ripley had gone directly to the Malfoy manor and told Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy that something, in his words, bad, had happened and they needed to come back with him to the Zabini mansion right away. Upon seeing the house elf and recognising it was not the families main servant, they immediate assumption was that something had happened to their son and both aparated to the scene within seconds.

When Narcissa saw her son standing perfectly fine in the doorway of the parlour, still holding back whom she recognised to be Blaise's wife, she whole body shook with relief and went to ask him straight away why exactly they had been sent for but when her eye-line caught the scene inside the parlour she stood frozen just as the other three had upon it's discovery.

It was Lucius Malfoy whom had really taken charge. As soon as he had come to understand what had happened, he knew just what he could do. First he took it upon himself to start to order Ripley about and the house elf took the orders without question.

A doctor, the Malfoy families own Doctor Ordell, arrived within five minutes of being sent for, he was able to give Tracey a sedative, a particularly strong one as it was apparent to all that she wasn't going to calm down. During this time Pansy had briefly wondered how she would have reacted if Draco had been sat in the chair instead of Blaise. She didn't even want to think about it.

The elder Malfoy's had surprised Draco, they hadn't asked questions about Pansy's presence, they had taken it as a given that their son had reconciled his marriage and due to the circumstances weren't going to start grilling him over it. Narcissa knew the close friendship between Draco and Blaise, she had watched them both grow from boys who threw toys at each other when they had an argument to young men who she had only once caught steaming drunk, trying to sneak their way into the house without making noise and failing miserably. It had been everything within her not to laugh at them as they had held each other up in an effort to not fall flat on their faces. The thing which now ran through Narcissa's mind, after she was at home with her husband, was her relief that it was not her son who had been killed, but the dread in having to write a letter to Lucretia, Blaise's mother, asking her to return to England as soon as she could.

Draco had been sat up on the bed now for a few hours, the house was eerily silent, in his mind he had been running through various incidents in his life, things which he hadn't thought about for years. Like when they had been little, he couldn't remember how old, five, six, seven, all he could remember was that Blaise's second step-father had recently died and he had been sent over to the Malfoy manor to play. Under Draco's suggestion, they had stolen his fathers wand, Blaise had been adamant that it wasn't a good idea, but had gone along with it anyway. They had gone into the garden and Draco had started randomly waving the wand around in effort to burn the pixies which were leaping about the grass. Of course they had been caught by Draco's mother before long and Blaise had taken the blame, knowing that the punishment on him would be less harsh on him than Draco.

Pansy coiled her hand upwards, taking several strands of Draco's long hair, which was hanging loose instead of being tied back in it's usual position with a piece of leather, she started to twirl it in her fingers. She had been laid on the bed with Draco since everything had died down. Her head was resting on the right side of his chest, his arm was looped carefully around her shoulders. It was nice just to lay there with him, but it felt like they were clinging to each other to make sure that the other one didn't slip away and out of grip. Practically clinging to one another in the darkness felt comforting, for years, even though Draco and Pansy had been a couple and Blaise had, had various different floozies on his arm before settling down with Tracey, they had always thought of each other collectively. If Blaise had asked Pansy what they were doing, well his question would include Draco without saying, same would be true if Pansy were to ask Draco what their plans were, unless she was referring specifically to a date, she would be including Blaise in their plans.

Being separated from Draco for half a year, she had missed the repartee and rapport the three had built up over the years. For a few minutes of that morning, which seemed a lifetime ago, it had seemed to her that that old lifestyle was in reach again, but with the events of the evening in place, that wish was gone forever. For some time she had been running through various memories of the three of them together in her head, the night when Blaise had proposed to Tracey and he had enlisted her and Draco to help, her wedding, Blaise's best man's speech had had her and most of the guests in fits of laughter throughout, mostly she was just thinking of little things, nights they had all stopped up in the Slytherin common room and gotton drunk or times they had gone on a mission during the middle of the night to play a prank on the Gryffindorks. The little things were the ones that she knew was going to miss the most.

She still couldn't accept it of course, it had taken her more than two hours to be able to speak and even then it had been words of denial, she hadn't hesitated when Draco suggested that they stay in the same room together. She needed to be close to him, she needed to make sure that he wasn't going to slip away from her.

Draco looked down at Pansy coiling his hair round her fingers, he had been glad she hadn't refused his company, he needed to be near her. To say that he was worried about what Nott might be up to was an understatement. They had all underestimated him. In times like this, when he did not have a clue what he should do, he would normally turn to Blaise, who, if he did not have an immediate solution, would more than likely have an idea of what to do. He felt a responsibility to make sure Pansy stayed safe now, but he had no idea where he could start, all he knew was that Nott _had_ to die.

Draco looked down into Pansy's eyes, his fingers traced along her shoulder and up across her collar bone, Pansy's eyes looked up into his as his fingers traced up her neck and he tilted her chin upwards, bringing his mouth down onto hers and capturing her lips in a strong, hungry kiss.

Pansy's hand crept up his neck, tangling her fingers in the hair at the nape and tugging on it sharply as he kissed her, she understood how much they needed each other on that night. They needed to be as close to each other as possible and they were both happy to throw away all the feelings of uncertainty and uncomfort in order to regain everything they had lost, if only for one night.

As their kisses deepened, their hands pawed at each other clothing being removed swiftly and surely, Pansy peeling off Draco's shirt, Draco almost ripping the buttons from her blouse as he torn the garment from her skin.

The two lost themselves in the moment as more clothing came loose from their bodies, the kissing becoming harder and more furious as they ignored all their surroundings and circumstances, and pressed their bodies together.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**Authors notes:**

**Thank you for taking the time to read chapter ten please send me a review I love to hear thoughts, good and bad, I don't appreciate flaming, just constructive criticism please, I want to know what I can do to make it better. **

**I'd just like to take a moment to say sorry to all who were upset about the last chapter, I really didn't want to do it, but it had to be done. **

**UPDATE: So I looked over the what people thought about whether the ending should stay as it is or be more smutty, the general concensous is people like it the way it is, but you never know, it might get more smutty later… **

**Now for some special shoutouts; thanks to MissAnthrope, LaGau and Littlefallofrain for the reviews, they were much appreciated guys and sorry to anyone who I didn't get back to. **

**Special sorry's to Lillykins, I know I didn't respond to your last review, but I didn't want to spoil anything for ya. **

**Special thankyou's to Twiist, Saving-Nemo and namelessxfreak for continuing support and reviews, you guys ROCK! **

**Now I'd just like to share some reactions from chapter nine, with you, my beloved readers, I hope the writers of these reactions won't mind me sharing them, if they do they can always slap me with a spoon and I shall remove them. **

**S: OMG!!!!! Did you KILL BLAISE?!?!?!?!?**

**------**

**L: Your so awful! how could you!?**

**Me: i take it you've read the chapter?**

**L: Poor Blaisey!**

**ME: I know. It broke my heart to do it. now i know how jk rowling felt when she killed off sirius**

**L: NOOOOOOOOOOOOO HE ISNT DEAD! YOUR JUST SAYING THAT!**

**ME: I'm sorry. he is**

**L: NO**

**ME: yes**

**L: NO!**

**ME: yes, you must accept it.**

**L: I WILL NOT**

**ME: i'm sorry. but don't blame me, blame Nott. he did it. **

**L: dont make me cry Paula, he is NOT dead**

**ME: He is. he's dead. **

**L: no more telling me he is dead. Blaise is fine. he will be all good by the end of the story**

**ME: ok hun, if you need to believe that. we'll see as it goes on**

**L: No, you really killed him?**

**ME: I didn't, Nott did.**

**L: damn, you made me cry my own tears :'(**


	11. Chapter 11

**((NB - This story is my creation, but I don't own Harry Potter or any of the characters or terms affiliated with it, no matter how much I would like to. Please R&R.))**

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**Chapter Eleven**

"_Less than zero a grotesque nightmare  
Subtly disturbing like normal behaviour  
I understand nothing and I cannot speak  
I'd walk in the park but the trees are diseased…._

_My personality is held together with sellotape  
A loose fit just like a numb junkies hate…._

_I touched your lips but now I just paint  
Surface reflection all I desired babe  
I am melancholy, flower cutting through stone  
I am a crime everybody has at home…."_

_Manic Street Preachers - Patrick Bateman_

_------------------------------------------------------------------------------_

After my evening out, I returned home to the Nott estate. Estate, that's a laugh, 2 acres of land and a three story out that's going to fall over the second a strong gust of wind hits it, but it's we've got. I, all I've got. There was more land, originally, but bit by bit, over the years, it had to be sold off. I've always thought once I had the formula, I could buy it back, but why bother? I could go somewhere else, somewhere different, like Scarborough, only without as many muggle tourists.

When I got home I was drawn into the gardens, I suppose technically they could still be called gardens, there's some flowers growing in them, but yes, I will admit that mostly it's full of weeds. Thankfully, the part I'd be drawn to, where there was a an old arbour completely covered in Ivy, still had a few real plants growing there and smelt faintly of lilies and iris'. Looking up into the sky, my purpose for being outside in the first place, I observed the moon hanging heavy in the darkness, illuminating the night with a bluish tint.

I saw something you don't often see, a pale green halo hanging around the surprisingly bright moon, I'm sure it's supposed to mean something, but I never did pay much attention in astronomy or was it divination? I don't think it matters much, considering I can't remember what it means anyway.

The adrenaline that had been coursing through my body had only started to wear off after I had been stood there in the garden for some time. I'm not sure how I could quite compare it for anyone to understand, I think the closest I have ever come to feeling it before, was once in the seventh year of Hogwarts, when I had stayed up all night to revise for the exams, I drank eight cups of very sugary coffee and was jittering for hours afterwards.

Truth be told, I thought Zabini was always the most problematic of the three. I rarely saw him lose his temper, but when he did, he was a dangerous commodity for Malfoy to have around. Over our time at Hogwarts, I watched Malfoy continually use Zabini for intimidation, even I have to admit, if you had the six foot four frame of him glaring down at you, it could be quite scary. I'm pretty sure that if he wanted to, he could wrap his hand around your neck and pull your head off your body. Still, with his physical strength, like most of us Slytherins, Zabini used his mind. I saw him more than once play peacemaker between Malfoy and Parkinson, which is something I finally realised I could use to my advantage.

Once I have the formula, I could try to maintain the garden, I'll have the means to. I could probably fix up the house to, make it not completely dilapidated. The problem is, I just don't care, I've never really cared for anything on the estate. For as long as I can remember of my adult life, the only thing I have really cared about is getting my hands on the formula. Once I had that, I'll be able to do anything I want, those rich boys always thought they were so good because they had power and influence. I'll show them what _real _power is. Part of me wonders what it would be like if Malfoy was out of the way. If Parkinson would cry on my shoulder. I think half of me would want to maybe take her out, treat her nicely, give her what Malfoy never could, the other half of me wonders what her head would look like on a stick.

I took another deep sniff of the air, filling my lungs with the faint scent of the dying flowers before I went back in the house to get a few things. I didn't really expect any impromptu visit from Malfoy, although I'd wager that it the arrogant Lucius Malfoy had been brought into the fold, then someone _may _be sent to keep an eye out for me. In any case, it would be safer for me to move on the for night, stay somewhere that's virtually unknown to anyone who knows my movements. I don't think the trio are smart enough to have thought to send someone to watch me when I turned back up. They have always underestimated me and that has been a weakness I am finally able to exploit.

--------------------------------------------------------------

Watching the boy, yes, I suppose he is still a boy really, I find it hard to believe that this scrawny son of Darius Nott was capable of pulling the wool over both my son and his best friends eyes and carrying off a calculated murder. I am almost impressed. Almost.

To my wife's disdain, I never thought much of Lucretia Zabini as a parent. She was always too soft with the boy, allowing him to develop unhealthy attachments to her many husbands. As a casual observer, it seemed like he was always searching for some sort of fatherly guidance, a male influence to steer him in the right direction. I would never class any of Lucretia's husbands as fitting into that category. It surprised me when he, unlike my own son, chose to start producing heir's to his familial line early on. Now with hindsight, I suppose it was lucky he did. Or the Zabini line would have died with him. From what I understand, listening to the whispers coming from Cissy's room, the boy came close to producing more than one illegitimate child during his time in Hogwarts, apparently, he had inherited his father's gift for being able to charm women into bed with nothing much more than a smile.

When the house elf turned up at my home this evening, I must admit my first thoughts were that Draco had been injured in some sort of drunken argument with his friend and the house elf was overreacting. The expression on Cissy's face may haunt me at night for years to come, the relief on her face when she clapped eyes on her son which soon turned to shock and horror as she looked into the Zabini parlour and saw her best friend's son slumped dead in his father's armchair.

When I had settled the situation down at the house and we returned home, I sent my wife to bed with a large glass of black vodka and immediately left for the Nott estate. I did not expect the boy to be so stupid as to return there, but I thought perhaps a quick rummage through his things would lead me to a clue to his whereabouts. You can imagine how shocked I was therefore, when I observed him standing in the garden, staring up at the sky.

The only thing I saw that was worth looking at was the moon, a pale green halo hung around it's luminescent orb. A sign of trouble not far off. It took me a long time to decide what to do, I contemplated just killing him, but I knew if I did, Draco would be very angry with me. Not that, that would usually concern me, but this situation is different. He has the right to exact his own vengeance should he want to. I am positive he would want to Kill the boy himself, not that Narcissa could ever find out about it, the earache I would get from her would give me a perpetual headache if she did.

I watched young Nott as he eventually went into the house, by then I had decided to follow his movements, find out where he was going and return to the Zabini household in the morning. Perhaps then my son will be willing to explain what all this had been about.

--------------------------------------------------------------

I waited till Pansy had fallen asleep. I wasn't sure what time it was, maybe four, five am, my pocket watch was in my trouser pocket and they were across the room, Pansy was half laying across my chest so I didn't want to move and disturb her. I'm not sure how I was still able to be awake, it felt like the last two days had been going on for months, so much had happened it was hard to take in. I don't think it had sunk in yet, that he was gone, but I didn't really want to think about him too much.

I was thinking about what I should have been doing, I should have been tracking Nott down. I don't know why he thought what he did was going to motivate us into giving him the remaining parts of the formula, it just means I'm going to have to kill him. How dare he? How could he have the gall to think he could get away with it. I guess we had underestimated him all these years. That won't be a mistake I make again.

Dammit. I swore to myself I wouldn't think about Blaise. But I can't help it. My first instinct keeps telling me to go ask him what to do, to get his advice, but I can't. It feels like my arm has been cut off, I hate feeling like this. It's weak. My father has always discouraged expressing emotions, he always said they are a sign of weakness. But maybe, Blaise was right all these years.

He always told me what my father bred into me was hypocritical. After all, my father always catered to every whim of my mothers, it can't have been just to keep her happy, I've seen him cave more than once when my mother cried during an argument. Cutting myself off from emotions made me lose Pansy. Blaise will tell you… Blaise _would _have told you… I wasn't really getting on well without her. I guess I never realised how much I needed her till she wasn't there, but I should be telling her this.

I want my best friend back.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**Authors notes:**

**Thank you for taking the time to read chapter eleven please send me a review I love to hear thoughts, good and bad, I don't appreciate flaming, just constructive criticism please, I want to know what I can do to make it better. **

**Ok, ok, I know… it's been almost a month since the last chapter. This one was really hard to get out. It's gone through 3 re-writes. I know it's a completely different style to the previous chapters but this is a one off. Next chapter will be back to regular style and hopefully finished sooner. **

**I just want to thank everyone for their reviews and continued support. And I hope you like it.**


	12. Chapter 12

****

((NB - This story is my creation, but I don't own Harry Potter or any of the characters or terms affiliated with it, no matter how much I would like to. Please R&R.))

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

****

Chapter Twelve

"Between the father and his son  
Between the city and the one  
Between the teacher and the test  
Between the journey and the rest

The shining eye will never cry  
The beating heart will never die  
The house on fire holds no shame  
I will be coming home again

Four hundred miles  
Without a word until you smile  
Four hundred miles  
On fields of fire"

Big Country - Fields of Fire

------------------------------------------------------------------

Pansy awoke to the sound of screaming. It cut through her bones, chilling her as she rubbed her slightly sleep encrusted eyes, trying to gain reorientation. It took her a few moments to realise where she was, not the in guest house, but in one of the guest rooms within the mansion itself. Draco wasn't in the bed, but there was a warm spot next to her, she guessed he hadn't been up long. He was stood by the window, his head turned, facing the door, then looking down at Pansy, it not taking either of them long to figure out where the sounds were coming from.

Draco started moving towards the door, picking his boxers up from the floor and slipping them on, Pansy rose the bed, wrapping the sheet around herself as they both headed down the hall to the main bedroom. Tracey was awake, she was screaming and crying again, sensing he looked drained, Pansy sent Draco downstairs while she gave Tracey some of the sedative Doctor Ordell had prescribed.

Draco went downstairs, heading to the kitchen, or the route he hoped led to the kitchen, it wasn't a place he had often gone for himself. He felt like he'd been up for days, his throat scratched, there was a pain in his chest like his ribs were sticking in his lungs, he wanted a drink, but it was a tad early, even for him. Tea would have to do.

He entered the kitchen and stood in the doorway, shocked for a few moments as he realised his father _was _actually sat there and he wasn't imagining it. He wasn't sure if it was seeing his father this early in the morning when he hadn't expected it or seeing his father pour for _himself _a cup of tea from the teapot which made him stand with his jaw open.

"Good morning Draco. I could not locate the house elf." Lucius picked another cup up from the shelf which had a line of matching crockery, pouring tea into the cup, then adding a spoon full of sugar, followed by a small amount of milk from a porcelain jug.

"Barton's still tied up in the cupboard upstairs, Ripley's looking after the kids." Draco moved over, slowly, rubbing his tired eyes. He pulled a wooden stool out from under the counter and seated himself on it, picking up the tea cup and giving his father a grateful nod.

"I thought as much. I presume your wife is upstairs?"

Draco nodded a little. "She' giving Tracey a sedative, she's… Well I think she's going to need help, until she can cope."

"And what about you Draco?" Lucius raised his eyebrow slightly, looking at his son. "What help are you going to need?"

Draco looked at his father curiously, wondering what exactly he was referring to. "I'm not sure what you mean father."

"Draco there is no use in pretending that this has not affected you." He placed his tea cup down on the counter and looked at his son seriously. "I am aware that even though I have discouraged you over the years from letting emotions rule over your decisions, but despite that, you and Blaise were always close. He was possibly the only real friend you ever had. You cannot think I don't realise that right now, you must be mourning his death."

"Father I really don't…."

"Am I interrupting?" The two Malfoy men turned their heads to the doorway. Pansy stood there, Draco noticed she had pulled on the clothing she had been wearing the previous day, although her feet were bare and obviously cold on the stone kitchen floor. "I just wanted some tea."

"It is fine, you may join us." Lucius motioned for her to come by them, picking up another clean tea cup for her, a gesture which shocked Pansy as much as Draco again. She moved across the room and stood beside Draco, opting to not pull out a stool and sit down.

"I gave Tracey another sedative, she's going to need someone to be with her everyday until she can cope. The stress might cause her to miscarry, she could do with having a doctor come and see her."

"She's pregnant?" Lucius raised an eyebrow as both Draco and Pansy nodded to confirm it. "It seems unfortunately, the Zabini tradition of the son, not knowing his father has regrettably been carried on."

"Father!"

"Don't look at me like that boy, Blaise never knew his father and his father never knew his own, Blaise's sons will never know their father and if his wife does bear the third child, then they will be fatherless also." He looked at his son sternly. "Draco I will arrange for Doctor Ordell to come and see the girl regularly, but I expect you to fulfil the duty your friend will never be able to, provide his children with a male figure they can look up to."

"I think I will put on another pot of tea." Pansy moved away from Draco and picked up the kettle to fill it with water from the tap.

"Now I have more pressing business to discuss with you Draco. Namely, am I correct in assuming you are interested in avenging your friend?"

Draco nodded slightly, it was a lot of information, he hadn't realised he would be expected to live up to the responsibilities that Blaise had left behind, but now he thought about it, it made sense. There would be things that his sons would need to know, guy stuff that they couldn't go to their mum about.

"Well I am going to tell you exactly where you can find Theodore Nott, but first, you have to divulge what exactly all this has been about."

Draco sighed, he looked to Pansy for a moment, who was placing the kettle on the stove as she shot him a nod, then looked back to his father before taking a deep breath and began speaking. "It started seven years ago; me and Blaise were playing Jacks, Twos and Eights in the dorm room with a bottle of Ogden's. We heard Nott come in and talking to himself about something. We got curious; we had nothing better to do really. Truth be told, we never considered Nott to have anything to him but greasy hair, a bad attitude and a multitude of potion experiments gone awry. That was the day we maybe started to consider there be a little more to him than that. We knew that Nott had been sneaking out of the grounds after lessons had finished and not coming back till late, at first we thought it was because he was meeting someone, then one morning Blaise looked through his owl's and found a letter from some lawyer. It turned out that Nott had gotten himself this part time job at this small branch in Hogsmead. You know Snelson, Bolton and Bobbin?"

"Of course I know them Draco, they are our lawyers."

"Oh… of course, sorry. Well, we didn't know how he got working there, but he was like, some sort of office boy. Anyway, while we in the dorm room that night, we found out what he had been up to. At night, he'd been expected to sort out old files, paperwork that was finished with but had to be put into the archives yet. What we found out, was that Nott had come across something interesting, an old will that had been sorted by the executor years before. It had detailed a vault in gringotts that apparently contained the last copy of a formula, at the time, we didn't know what it was for, only that Nott wanted it, badly."

Lucius sighed a little. "Draco you can spare me the details, I don't have all day to sit around drinking tea."

"Sorry father. Alright, if you want me to cut a long story short, Nott, uncharacteristically got drunk with us and told us about his plan, but he couldn't attempt to get into Gringotts on his own. He needed our help. The four of us, me, Blaise, Nott and Pansy, put together a plan." Draco swallowed a little as Lucius tapped his watch and decided to skip the intimate details. "When we got to what was in the vault, it was these dusty pages with a complicated formula written on them. Lucky for us, well at the time we thought so, Blaise had paid attention enough in lessons to recognise what the formula was for. A philosopher's stone." At this Lucius raised an eyebrow, his attention peaked. "Before Nott could realised what we had done, we had him agree to split the formula into four parts. We each took a couple of random pages in no particular order, that way, none of us could use it without the others agreeing. When we left Hogwarts, Nott told us he was taking off, round the continent for some reason or another and since we were, erm, drunk, most of that week, we agreed that when he came back in a few years, we'd put the pages back together and help order them. When Nott showed up again the other day, it had been something I think we all had completely forgotten about, but it was Blaise who it occurred to, that we didn't have to actually give him the pages back."

"Draco, the only thing I seem to understand so far about your story, is that you spent a lot longer being drunk in school, than I originally thought you had. But that doesn't matter. The basic thing is that you had something that he wants and he wants it badly enough to kill for it." He paused for a moment. "And that I should really change our lawyers."

Draco smiled a little. "That's about the long and the short of it."

Lucius raised his eyebrow as his son finished explaining just how he and his friends had come to find themselves in the threatening eye line of Theodore Nott. "Draco, as a difficult a situation you seem to have become entangled in, I assume you are aware of a most simple way out of it."

Draco nodded at his father, he knew to what he was referring. "I know father."

"You must _dispatch_, of young Nott. The sooner the better. Why you allowed yourself to get into this situation this deep, I shall never know, but a Malfoy has no need of such things. We are _pureblood_ after all." Cringing slightly, Draco nodded as his father spoke to him. "Never the less, if you want to find him, I know his location, I will tell you but, I won't be coming with you. This is something you must do by yourself and I think you know that."

"I know. It is something I would insist on doing myself. Although…"

"Draco, it is too late in the day to have doubts. I have taught you well. You have practised on muggles. Both of you seemed to be adept."

"Yes father that is the problem. We were adept. On muggles. I don't know what happened with Blaise and Nott, but I can't help but wonder if faced with reality of killing another wizard, if he couldn't do it."

Draco winced as his father slammed his fist against the kitchen counter top. "Boy, he did not even get out of his chair! I think it is sensible to conclude that Theodore Nott took a cowards way into the situation and they had not reached a duel situation in whatever they had been talking about!"

They sat in silence for a few moments before Draco gathered the breath to speak again. "Your right father."

"It's settled then. You can find him at number 42 Newman Close." Lucius took a moment to roll his eyes before picking up his tea cup, taking a sip and realising the liquid inside had gone cold and placing it back down again. "It's in _Shirley_… in _Southampton_."

"Southampton? Surely you can't be serious."

"I assure you, I am serious. There's no accounting for taste." Allowing himself to smirk a little at his fathers comment, Draco nodded in agreement. "Of course someone will have to stay here while your gone, am I correct in the assumption that you are able to do so Pansy?" Lucius turned his head, looking her to get a response, but not seeing her anywhere in the room.

Draco raised his eyebrow at the area where Pansy had last been stood. When it finally had become apparent to him that she was no longer there, a cold chill ran through his body. "Where did she go?"

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

****

Authors notes:

****

Thank you for taking the time to read chapter twelve please send me a review I love to hear thoughts, good and bad, I don't appreciate flaming, just constructive criticism please, I want to know what I can do to make it better.

****

I want to start off by saying; don't worry those who have more patience than Lucius, the whole Gringotts story will be told. I am not so much writing a sequel, but a spin off from this story is in the works that I will tell you more about as we get closer to the end.

Thank you to all my reviewers, you wonderful people keep me going between chapters, you really do. If it wasn't for your support the story wouldn't have come this far. You all know who you are; I'll be shouting you out in the last chapter.

Speaking of which, there are two chapters left to go and one of them, I think will be the epilogue. So I really want to thank you all now before I start on chapter 13 for all the support you keep giving me. I hope that I can live up to your hopes in the next one.


	13. Chapter 13

****

((NB - This story is my creation, but I don't own Harry Potter or any of the characters or terms affiliated with it, no matter how much I would like to. Please R&R.))

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

****

Chapter Thirteen

"I think I'm drowning  
asphyxiated  
I wanna break this spell  
that you've created

you're something beautiful  
a contradiction  
I wanna play the game  
I want the friction

you will be the death of me  
you will be the death of me

bury it  
I won't let you bury it  
I won't let you smother it  
I won't let you murder it

our time is running out  
our time is running out  
you can't push it underground  
you can't stop it screaming out"

Muse - Time is running out

------------------------------------------------------------------

All she needed was the address, watching the Malfoy men throw testosterone around the room like sweets was a bonus. It was funny, that Draco had assumed that she would smile politely in the corner and agree to whatever he wanted while he went off to find Nott. He seemed to have forgotten, it was she who had to force a sedative on Tracey so she could cope with the fact that her husband had been ripped away from her in the prime of his life and Tracey had been her best friend in Hogwarts, along with Blaise, something else he seemed to have forgotten. She was entitled to exact revenge as much as he was and she wouldn't let his macho need to settle the score with Nott interfere with that.

She had stayed long enough for Draco's father to divulge the information she wanted before quietly snuck from the room and collected the shoes she had left outside before slinking down the corridor and out of the front door of the Zabini mansion so she could aparate to Southampton. Shirley was not an area she was familiar with, but she had delivered some plants to a house there once before, so she had sent herself to there. Looking at the muggle sign post, stating the roads name, she pondered to herself how she was going to get where she was, on Lockhams road, to Newman close, before Draco realised that she had slipped out. She reckoned that she had at the most a five minute head start.

Looking around she started walking, a muggle coming up on the same side of the street as her didn't seem to notice she was there, she was more pre-occupied with lighting a white stick hanging on her bottom lip. The girl looked strange to Pansy, but she had never spent much time near muggles, with her wand securely tucked into her pocket she stopped the girl. "Excuse me, can you tell me how to get to Newman Close?"

Looking a little confused for a moment at Pansy, as if the girl had not been aware of her presence till she was stopped she nodded and pointed to the end of the street. "Yeah luv, just walk to the end of this street and it's the next one down."

"Thanks." Pansy started heading in the direction that the muggle had pointed to and shuddered to herself, having to rely on a muggle for directions wasn't exactly how she pictured starting her mission, but it would have to do. Turning at the end of the road, she spotted a sign post saying 'Newman Close' and she smiled to herself.

Nott hadn't been awake long when he heard a knock at the door, he didn't think much of it, after all, there was little chance anyone knew where he was. He figured it was some muggle salesman or something equally banal, he had decided to leave it, hoping they would go away, until the second, much louder knock. Going to the door, he opened it with the intention of telling them to go away and had little time to do much but open his eyes widely in shock as the wand pointed in his face and he shot backwards away from the door as the spell that fired from the end hit him square in the chest.

Pansy stepped over the threshold of the door, her face set to a deep scowl, her wand pointed directly at Nott who looked shocked, crumpled against the wall he had flown into and was now clutching his side. Pansy slammed the door behind her, keeping her eyes on Nott, she briefly pointed her wand at the door saying "Clausus," to seal it closed, to prevent any unwanted visitors. Her wand returned to facing Nott, flicking it at the end she summoned for his wand. "Accio Nott's wand!" From another room, the wand came flying through the air and landed in her hand. Nott was stupid for not keeping his wand on him at all times, but his mistake was going to work well for Pansy.

"Parkinson!" Nott placed the hand not holding his side against the wall behind him to lift himself up off the ground. "Now Parkinson, why don't you put that wand down before you hurt yourself."

Pansy narrowed her eyes at the gangly frame of Nott before her "That's pretty rich coming from someone who's unarmed Nott. And if I were you I'd keep my mouth shut, because I have a few things to say to you before I kill you."

Nott arched his eyebrow at her, she was certainly being bold, he wondered how long it would be before Malfoy turned up. He knew Parkinson, she didn't have enough guts to kill him. He raised one hand up, palm open, to show her he was willing to listen, his other hand firmly gripped his ribcage, he guessed that he had broken a rib at least. It hurt like a bitch, but he could ignore it should he have to. He just had to figure out how to either get his wand back from her or reach the magically sharpened blade in the next room, it would be a shame to have to stick her with it, but he could do it if he had to. "Alright Parkinson, I'm listening."

"Morsus!" Pansy's favourite stinging hex shot from the end of her wand and hit him in the shoulder, she smiled as he betrayed his attempted, hard exterior to wince in pain. "Nott, stop calling me Parkinson!" She moved forward, motioning with the wand for him to move into the next room, which he did, slowly, unbeknownst to her he was thinking the hole time of how he could grab the blade laid out on the side in the room. Pansy motioned to a dilapidated armchair for him to sit on while she perched herself on the arm of a settee in the room, so far she hadn't thought about whose house this was or how Nott had got access to it, but the furniture in the room indicated to her that it hadn't been used for a while. "Now Nott, we're going to talk about," she paused for a moment and swallowed a small lump which has risen in her throat, "Blaise."

"Can I just say Parkin…" He stopped himself, unsure of how to address her and not wanting another of her rather affective hexes sent his way for interrupting her, he decided to just continue. "I would have thought Malfoy would have come himself instead of sending you."

Pansy raised her eyebrow and chuckled a little bitterly at him. "Draco did not intend for me to be the one to come here _Theodore_. He expected me to sit and look after the mess _you_ created."

Nott smiled internally, he knew he could change his tactic here, he guessed she had not realised what she had unintentionally revealed to him, but changed his face to a cringe as she addressed him as Theodore. No one addressed him that way, the few who did use his first name always called him Theo, except his father. "I'm not sure what you mean by that _Pansy_."

"Morsus!" She smiled as Nott yelped as she hit him with the stinging hex in the shoulder again, taking much pleasure in seeing him in both pain and confusion, her little seen sadistic side was coming through with great force. "What I_ mean _Theodore, is what you did to Tracey. Remember Tracey? She's got to raise those boys on her own thanks to you."

"She wouldn't have to if it hadn't been for that stupid house elf."

Pansy narrowed her eyes further, almost becoming slits and straightened her wand at him. "What?"

Standing up, Nott eyed her, he knew he could probably take her by surprise if he took a chance. "If it wasn't for that stupid house elf, Tracey wouldn't have any children to worry about." Pansy screamed and flew at him in a rage, provoking her had worked and provided him with the chance he needed. Years on the outside, watching Malfoy and Zabini wind her up had given him the tools to know which buttons to press to get a reaction out of her. He dodged her as she lunged at him, and dived for the knife that had been laid out behind her. He grabbed it as a hexed flew past his right ear, narrowly missing him, her anger had affected her aim. As she raised her wand to fire off another hex at him he pounced at her, throwing her off guard.

The two former Slytherins began struggling against one another, both trying to gain the advantage. Nott tried to hold back Pansy's left hand with his right, attempting to prevent her from being able to fire off more spells whilst Pansy struggled against Nott's right hand with her left. The last thing she wanted to do was be stabbed.

The noise they were making prevented either of them from hearing the banging to the front door and the sound of Draco shouting from the other side of it.

When Draco had realised Pansy was no longer in the kitchen of the Zabini mansion, his first instinct was to run up the main staircase, pelting down the corridor for the master bedroom to see if she had gone back upstairs, shouting her name all the way, he hoped to find her there and was greeted by nothing but Tracey sedated on the bed. He checked the room they had slept in and the nursery before coming to the conclusion that the worst had in fact happened and had gone back to the kitchen. His father was less than impressed as he blurted what he thought had happened and told him he was going after her.

He stood now at the door of number 42 Newman Close, pounding it with his fists, willing it to be opened. After a few minutes, he conceded that the door wasn't going to either opened for him or would he be able to break it open. He drew his wand fro his pocket and pointed at the door handle, shouting "PATEFACIO," the door clicked open and he smiled slightly to himself with a small amount of relief, if patefacio had unsealed the door, then Pansy had sealed it herself.

He ran through into the house, following the sound of Pansy and Nott struggling against one another. Seeing them in what passed for the living room, at first he pointed his wand at Nott, but seeing that he had gained an advantage over her and now had a knife inches away from her throat, he knew he would be unable to throw any hex or curse at him without putting Pansy in danger of being stabbed. Instead, Draco ran at the struggling two, pulling Nott away who instantly turned his attention to Draco.

The animal look in Nott's eyes took Draco aback a little and he barely had time to react at Nott went for him, the knife poised at his torso. Pansy was dumbstruck for a moment as she gathered her bearings and took a few moments to realise what had happened. She pointed her wand at Nott's back as he lunged at Draco and screamed at the top of her voice. "AVADA KEDAVRA!" The unforgivable curse hit Nott in the back and he fell squarely onto Draco, the knife in his hand digging into him. "Draco!"

Draco felt the cold steel blade enter his body, it at first seemed like a hard blow till the realisation struck him as to what had happened. He could hear Pansy screaming his name, but it sounded far away to him. He felt the pressure on his chest start to alleviate as Pansy moved Nott's body from on top him and cupped his face in her hands, repeating his name as everything went dark.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

****

Authors notes:

****

Thank you for taking the time to read chapter thirteen please send me a review I love to hear thoughts, good and bad, I don't appreciate flaming, just constructive criticism please, I want to know what I can do to make it better.

I think I got this one done in record time, which is good news for those of you who wanted to read it and bad news since there's just one chapter left to go. Which I am actually making a start on right now… eeep!

When the last chapter is up I will be doing some special shoutouts to all my lovely reviewers, without whom, trust me, I would not have come this far. So rather than spend ages wittering on here, I'm going to get on with the final chapter. I hope it will live up to everyone's hopes and I really hope you guys liked this one.


	14. Epilogue

**((NB - This story is my creation, but I don't own Harry Potter or any of the characters or terms affiliated with it, no matter how much I would like to. Please R&R.))**

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**Epilogue**

"_Everybody knows that the dice are loaded  
Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed  
Everybody knows that the war is over  
Everybody knows the good guys lost  
Everybody knows the fight was fixed  
The poor stay poor, the rich get rich  
That's how it goes  
Everybody knows"_

_Leonard Cohen - Everybody Knows_

----------------------------

The death of a high profile pure-blooded wizard was something that did not generally go unnoticed to the wizarding population of Britain. Indeed, many eyebrows had been raised when the obituary had been placed in the daily prophet but the mysterious death of Blaise Zabini had not been investigated by the ministry for magic, many had speculated behind closed doors that this was due to the involvement of Lucius Malfoy, giving 'back-handers' to the right people so that the subject would be dropped and kept out of the press.

The fact that this event had coincided with a serious injury for the Thornaby Thrushes star-player, who had to be given an uncomfortable amount of time-off from his team, something which cost them the cup, but not a spot in the top five in the division, had also not gone unnoticed, but was forgotten about soon enough when the gossip rag's found the indiscretions of a former high ranking ministry official, much more interesting to talk about.

For the first time in more years than she cared to remember, Pansy had cried an unfathomable amount the night that she and Draco had come to blows with Nott. She had been not far from Draco's side for most of the night and following day while he was worked on by the doctors and nurses in St.Mungos. The Magically sharpened blade had caused a lot of trauma to the organs it had slid into in, Draco had come very close to dying. But he had been saved, barely.

The doctors had told him Pansy that her husband would probably have some slight breathing difficulties and pain during the cold months, but it was something he could live with, most importantly, he _would _live.

An entire year had passed since the incident and things could not have been more different from their first six month of marriage. For one, Pansy was back where she belonged, at her husbands side. After Draco had been released from hospital, they had returned to their own home, instead of the Zabini mansion, had been intended. There was no need for them really to be there, Blaise's mother, receiving an urgent letter from Narcissa had returned within a matter of hours from her latest excursion and had devoted her time since to helping Tracey and looking after her grandsons.

Pansy and Draco had still spent a lot of time at the mansion, Draco had not had to explain to Pansy the duty he felt he had to fulfill in providing a stable male figure in the lives of his best friends children.

Sat in the gardens of the Zabini mansion, Pansy smiled down at the baby in her arms and cooed to him, which was met by a slight rolling of the eyes by Draco. "Luv, as much as I know you would like to have him like that all day, do you think you could give him back to Tracey?"

Pansy smirked and shook her head slightly, "I'll give him back when I'm good and ready."

"You see what you're doing to me Tracey? You've got her all broody again." Draco smiled. In a way it was pleasant to be able to return to a state of normalcy with the banter which had been second nature to him in prior times. In others, it left him with a bitter reminder of the friend he had lost and would not be able to share the moments he should be with his son, who had been brought into the world after his father had died, by the sheer determination of Lucretia Zabini if nothing else that her son's last child would not be lost to his mother's grief.

Times had been tough for all of them, but things were improving, they could almost be called normal. He knew his parents would want him to produce an heir soon, but it wasn't something either he or Pansy were ready to rush into. They had almost lost each other to the most dangerous paths, but had now found each other side by side, ready to travel the road of life together, just as they always should have been.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

**Authors notes:**

**Thank you for taking the time to read the epilogue please send me a review I'd love to hear what you thought about it.**

**OK my faithful readers, at long last, the story has officially ended. I would like to thank each and every one of you who stuck with me through the past couple of months, at times it's been a bit trying but I knew I would get there in the end. Just before I get to some individual thank you's, I'd just like to explain, the reason this took so long to put out there is due to unavoidable factors of my net caving in on me and my laptop ceasing to function. I had to start this from scratch on a friends computer but managed to reconstruct most of what I had written and finished it off. **

**I would have liked to have made this a longer chapter, however, it was really all this part of the story had left to say. However, there WILL be a follow up. Anyone who doesn't have me on their author alert who would like to read it, should add me now. I won't be starting it until after the release of Deathly Hallows. Then I will be writing a follow up to this story (more than likely a prequel and THEN a sequel to this, just so I can do the dark trio and Nott's adventure at getting the formula some justice) and something else a bit different, but based around my favorite hetro life-mates, Draco and Blaise.**

**So, to the thank yous. **

**First of all; Twiist, to whom this story is dedicated, I hope you enjoyed it hun, thank you for your constant support and ahem badgering, to get the next part out. **

**SavingNemo; thank you for putting up with my endless ramblings about writers block, I really hope you liked the story.**

**namelessxfreak; you really don't know how much your reviews have perked me up when I needed it. I hope it lived up to your expectations.**

**fantasygirl26, Little Fall of Rain, Miss Anthrope and Lilykins; you guys have been star's leaving me your reviews, you never went unnoticed and were always apreciated.**

**LaGau, jjp91 and Malinda Beatle; you may have only reviewed once, but I hope you stuck with the story. If you did, drop me a quick message to let me know what you thought.**

**Everybody else, if you have come across this story after it's completion, then I thank you for taking the time to read the whole thing, I know I have a tendancy to waffle sometimes. I try to respond to every review left for me so please do leave me one, or send me a message if you'd like. **

**  
**


End file.
